Portable ultrasound imaging system
First Claim
1. A scan head for an ultrasound imaging system comprising:
- an array of ultrasonic transducers that receives reflected ultrasonic signals from a region of interest, the transducers converting the received ultrasonic signals into analog electrical signals;
beam forming circuitry that receives the analog electrical signals and combines the electrical signals from the ultrasonic transducers, the beam forming circuitry including a delay circuit that generates an analog electrical representative of the region of interest;
a hand-held housing in which the ultrasonic transducers and the beam forming circuitry are housed; and
an interlace over which a combined electrical representation from the beam forming circuitry is forwarded from the hand-held housing to processing circuitry in a second housing.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A portable ultrasound imaging system includes a handheld scan head coupled by a cable to a portable battery-powered data processor and display unit, preferably in the form of a lap-top computer. The scan head enclosure houses an array of ultrasonic transducers and the circuitry associated therewith, including pulse synchronizer circuitry used in the transmit mode to time transmission of ultrasonic pulses and beam forming circuitry used in the receive mode to dynamically focus reflected ultrasonic signals returning from the region of interest being imaged. Because the pulse synchronizer and beam forming circuits are integrated on small chips, they can be included in the scan head, resulting in a portable low-power system. Also, since the beam forming and summation functions are performed in the scan head in proximity to the transducer elements, signal loss is substantially reduced, resulting in much higher image quality. In addition, the focused summed signal is transferred to the data processor and display unit by a cable which is far less sophisticated and expensive than the cables used in prior systems to transfer all of the transducer signals to a console signal processing unit.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. A scan head for an ultrasound imaging system comprising:
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an array of ultrasonic transducers that receives reflected ultrasonic signals from a region of interest, the transducers converting the received ultrasonic signals into analog electrical signals; beam forming circuitry that receives the analog electrical signals and combines the electrical signals from the ultrasonic transducers, the beam forming circuitry including a delay circuit that generates an analog electrical representative of the region of interest; a hand-held housing in which the ultrasonic transducers and the beam forming circuitry are housed; and an interlace over which a combined electrical representation from the beam forming circuitry is forwarded from the hand-held housing to processing circuitry in a second housing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A scan head for an ultrasound imaging system comprising:
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an array of ultrasonic transducers that transmits ultrasonic signals into a region of interest and that receives reflected ultrasonic signals from the region of interest, the transducers converting the received ultrasonic signals into electrical signals; pulse synchronization circuitry that provides timing signals to the array of ultrasonic transducers to time the ultrasonic signals transmitted into the region of interest by the ultrasonic transducers; beam forming circuitry that combines the electrical signals from the ultrasonic transducers, the beam forming circuitry including a delay circuit that generates an analog electrical representative of the region of interest; a first housing in which the ultrasonic transducers, the pules synchronization circuitry and the beam forming circuitry are housed; and an interface over which a combined electrical representation from the beam forming circuitry is forwarded from the first housing to processing circuitry in a second housing. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of scanning a region of interest with ultrasound energy comprising:
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providing a hand-held scan head having a housing in which an array of ultrasonic transducers and beam forming circuitry is located, the beam forming circuitry including a delay circuit; holding the hand-held scan head in a hand of a user to position the transducers in the housing adjacent to the region of interest; receiving reflected ultrasonic signals from the region of interest with the ultrasonic transducers, the ultrasonic transducers converting the received ultrasonic signals into analog electrical signals; selectively delaying and combining the electrical signals from the ultrasonic transducers with the beam forming circuitry into an analog electrical representation of the region of interest; and forwarding an electrical representation from the beam forming circuitry out of the housing of the scan head over an interface to a second housing. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification