Sparse two-dimensional wideband ultrasound transducer arrays
First Claim
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1. An ultrasound imaging system comprising:
- an ultrasound transducer array comprising a grid having a predetermined number of grid points and a plurality of ultrasound transducer elements supported by said grid, each of said transducer elements being located at a respective grid point in a set of grid points selected to be located in a predetermined pattern so that an aperture of said array has smaller sidelobe levels than would be produced by a fully populated grid, the number of ultrasound transducer elements being less than said predetermined number;
transmitter means for activating said ultrasound transducer elements to transmit a series of transmit ultrasound waveforms;
beamforming means for forming receive beams from signals provided by said ultrasound transducer elements in response to reception of ultrasound energy from a reflecting point on which said transmit ultrasound waveforms impinge; and
monitoring means for displaying an image which is a function of said receive beams.
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Abstract
An ultrasonic imaging system employs a thinned array of transducer elements in order to reduce the number of signal processing channels. The transducer elements are reduced in number and then selectively located at grid positions in a pattern which reduces the sidelobe levels produced by the array. Thinning is accomplished by discretizing the aperture of the transducer array in two steps. First, a continuous aperture is discretized as a set of concentric rings. Then each ring is replaced by a set of spaced transducer elements. A zero sampling technique is used to determine the number of elements on each ring.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. An ultrasound imaging system comprising:
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an ultrasound transducer array comprising a grid having a predetermined number of grid points and a plurality of ultrasound transducer elements supported by said grid, each of said transducer elements being located at a respective grid point in a set of grid points selected to be located in a predetermined pattern so that an aperture of said array has smaller sidelobe levels than would be produced by a fully populated grid, the number of ultrasound transducer elements being less than said predetermined number; transmitter means for activating said ultrasound transducer elements to transmit a series of transmit ultrasound waveforms; beamforming means for forming receive beams from signals provided by said ultrasound transducer elements in response to reception of ultrasound energy from a reflecting point on which said transmit ultrasound waveforms impinge; and monitoring means for displaying an image which is a function of said receive beams. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An ultrasound transducer array for medical imaging, comprising:
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a grid having a predetermined number of grid points; and a plurality of ultrasound transducers supported by said grid, each of said transducers being located at a respective grid point in a set of grid points arranged to form a non-circular aperture, the number of ultrasound transducers being less than said predetermined number, wherein the grid points of said set are located in a predetermined pattern so that said non-circular aperture of said array has smaller sidelobe levels than would be produced by a fully populated grid coextensive with said non-circular aperture. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification