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Time multiplexed digital ultrasound beamformer

  • US 5,469,851 A
  • Filed: 08/09/1994
  • Issued: 11/28/1995
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/09/1994
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An ultrasound beamformer for processing received signals from an ultrasound transducer array, comprising:

  • a plurality of processing channels, each receiving a signal from an element of the transducer array and comprising;

    digitizing means for converting the received signal to digital samples at a sampling rate f; and

    time multiplexed delay means responsive to delay coefficients for delaying said digital samples by time multiplexed delays to produce a stream of delayed, time multiplexed digital samples for forming two or more receive beams, said time multiplexed delay means comprising delay means for delaying said digital samples by selected delays that are quantized in increments equal to the sampling period 1/f, said delay means comprising memory means for storing said digital samples, means for writing said digital samples into said memory means, and time multiplexed read means for reading said digital samples from said memory means at locations corresponding to said time multiplexed delays, said read means comprising a read counter for each receive beam being processed, each read counter including means for addressing a location in said memory means corresponding to a desired delay, and multiplexer means for applying the output of a selected read counter to said memory means in response to an interleave control signal representative of a receive beam being processed during each clock cycle;

    summing means for summing said delayed, time multiplexed digital samples to form a stream of time multiplexed output samples that is representative of said two or more receive beams; and

    a coefficient generator for supplying said delay coefficients to the time multiplexed delay means in each of said processing channels.

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