Acoustic wave imaging apparatus and method
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An acoustic imaging apparatus, comprising:
- control logic;
a plurality of transducer elements arranged in an array, each coupled to said control logic and capable of transmitting an acoustic signal representative of an electrical transmit control signal propagated from said control logic and generating an electrical receive signal representative of an incident acoustic signal;
means within said control logic for generating an electrical transmit control signal for each transducer element such that the electrical transmit control signal for each transducer element contains a coded signal;
means within said control logic for generating an electrical receive control signal for each transducer element such that the electrical receive control signal for each transducer element contains a frequency and phase shift that when combined with the transducer element'"'"'s electrical receive signal modifies the frequency and phase of that electrical receive signal in such a manner as to permit the coherent combination of the modified electrical receive signals from all of said plurality of transducer elements;
means for combining the electrical receive control signal of each transducer element with an electrical receive signal generated by that transducer;
means coupled to each of said transducer elements for combining the modified electrical receive signals from said transducer elements so as to form a coherently combined array output signal;
means coupled to said transducer output combining means for decoding a combined reflected coded signal in the coherently combined array output signal to produce a decoding means output signal; and
means coupled to said decoding means for generating image data from said decoding means output signal.
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Abstract
An acoustic imaging apparatus and method that achieves desired delays with coded signals. Linear, curved linear and sector scanning is provided in 1-D arrays and planar, curved planar and sector scanning is provided in 2-D arrays. Composite and non-linear implementations are presented. Dynamic and discrete dynamic focusing is disclosed for the relevant arrays. The 2-D array makes possible 3-D imaging.
69 Citations
23 Claims
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1. An acoustic imaging apparatus, comprising:
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control logic; a plurality of transducer elements arranged in an array, each coupled to said control logic and capable of transmitting an acoustic signal representative of an electrical transmit control signal propagated from said control logic and generating an electrical receive signal representative of an incident acoustic signal; means within said control logic for generating an electrical transmit control signal for each transducer element such that the electrical transmit control signal for each transducer element contains a coded signal; means within said control logic for generating an electrical receive control signal for each transducer element such that the electrical receive control signal for each transducer element contains a frequency and phase shift that when combined with the transducer element'"'"'s electrical receive signal modifies the frequency and phase of that electrical receive signal in such a manner as to permit the coherent combination of the modified electrical receive signals from all of said plurality of transducer elements; means for combining the electrical receive control signal of each transducer element with an electrical receive signal generated by that transducer; means coupled to each of said transducer elements for combining the modified electrical receive signals from said transducer elements so as to form a coherently combined array output signal; means coupled to said transducer output combining means for decoding a combined reflected coded signal in the coherently combined array output signal to produce a decoding means output signal; and
means coupled to said decoding means for generating image data from said decoding means output signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An acoustic imaging apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of electro-acoustic transducer elements arranged in an array, each capable of transmitting an acoustic signal and generating an electrical signal representative of an incident acoustic wave;
control means having a plurality of control channels coupled to each of said plurality of transducer elements, said control channels being fewer in number than said transducer elements; wherein said control means generates control signals for each transducer element that when combined with the electrical receive signal of that transducer element modifies the electrical receive signal in such a manner as to permit the simultaneous processing of the modified electrical receive signals from said plurality of transducer elements; means for combining the modified electrical receive signals of each of said transducer elements to form an array output signal; and means coupled to said combining means for generating image data from said array output signal. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
- a plurality of electro-acoustic transducer elements arranged in an array, each capable of transmitting an acoustic signal and generating an electrical signal representative of an incident acoustic wave;
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16. An acoustic imaging system, comprising:
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an array of electro-acoustic transducer elements having M rows and N columns, where M and N are positive integers and at least one of M and N is greater than one; M row control lines, each coupled to the transducer elements in one of said M rows; N column control lines, each coupled to the transducer elements in one of said N columns; control means coupled to each of said M row and N column control lines for generating row control signals for each of said row control lines and column control signals for each of said column control lines, a control signal for each transducer being a combination of one of said row control signals and one of said column control signals; a plurality of active devices, each coupled to one of said transducer elements for combining the row control signal and the column control signal of that transducer element; means for combining the output of each transducer element to produce an array output signal; and means coupled to said transducer output combining means for generating image data from said array output signal. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for acoustic imaging, comprising the steps of:
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providing control logic; providing a plurality of transducer elements arranged in an array, each coupled to said control logic and capable of transmitting an acoustic signal representative of an electrical transmit control signal propagated from said control logic and generating an electrical receive signal representative of an incident acoustic signal; generating an electrical transmit control signal for each transducer element such that the electrical transmit control signal for each transducer element contains a coded signal; generating an electrical receive control signal for each transducer element that contains an appropriate frequency and phase shift that when combined with that transducer element'"'"'s electrical receive signal permits the coherent combination of the electrical receive signals of each of the plurality of transducer elements; combining the coherent output signals from said transducer elements so as to form a coherently combined array output signal; decoding a combined reflected coded signal in the coherently combined array output signal to produce a decoded output signal; and generating image data from the decoded output signal.
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23. An acoustic imaging apparatus, comprising:
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control logic; a plurality of transducer elements arranged in an array, each coupled to said control logic and capable of transmitting an acoustic signal representative of an electrical transmit control signal propagated from said control logic and generating an electrical receive signal representative of an incident acoustic signal; means within said control logic for generating an electrical transmit control signal for each transducer element that contains a frequency based coded signal and cause each transducer to emit an acoustic signal representative of said coded signal; means for modifying the frequency and chase of an electrical receive signal of each transducer element for coherently combining reflected coded signals within the electrical receive signals thereof; means coupled to said modifying means for decoding the combined reflected coded signal to achieve a time delay based on that coded signal; and means coupled to said decoding means for generating image data from an output signal therefrom.
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Specification