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Elevation focusing by beamformer channel sharing

  • US 6,089,096 A
  • Filed: 07/01/1998
  • Issued: 07/18/2000
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/01/1998
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An imaging system for focusing ultrasound beams in elevational and azimuthal planes;

  • the system comprising;

    an array having a plurality of rows of imaging elements in an elevational direction and a plurality of columns of imaging elements in an azimuthal direction;

    a plurality of beamformer channels, each beamformer channel including a transmit beamformer and a receive beamformer;

    a switching circuit, including a plurality of switches, that allocates, in response to a control signal, at least one beamformer channel to an elevational element of a first aperture having a predetermined number of columns and rows for scanning a first depth of an imaging field, and to an azimuthal element of a column added to the first aperture to form a second aperture for scanning a second depth of the imaging field;

    a controller providing a control signal for allocating the at least one beamformer channel between the elevational element and the azimuthal element of the array.

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