Ultrasonic signal processor for a hand held ultrasonic diagnostic instrument

• US 6,135,961 A
• Filed: 10/06/1998
• Issued: 10/24/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: FUJIFILM SonoSite, Inc. (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sonosite Incorporated (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Coughlin, Justin, Souquet, Jacques, Greisel, Larry, Danielson, Steven G., Ogle, William R., Pflugrath, Lauren S., Little, Blake W., Hwang, Juin-Jet
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaworski, Francis J.
• Application Number:
  US09/167,964
• Time in Patent Office: 749 Days
• Field of Search: 600/437, 600/440-441, 600/443, 600/447, 600/454-456, 367/138, 367/7
• US Class Current: 600/447
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0456 Apparatus provided with a docking unit
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/00 Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves imaging of objects using sonar G01S15/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/06 Measuring blood flow measuring volume flow in general G01F, e.g. G01F1/66, G01F1/72; measuring speed of fluids in general G01P5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/13 Tomography A61B8/10, A61B8/12 take precedence; tomography for radiation diagnosis A61B6/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/14 Echo-tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4427 Device being portable or laptop-like
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4455 Features of the external shape of the probe, e.g. ergonomic aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8915 using a transducer array
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/892 the array being curvilinear
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/899 Combination of imaging systems with ancillary equipment
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52028 using digital techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52034 Data rate converters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/5206 Two-dimensional coordinated display of distance and direction; B-scan display
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/5208 with integration of processing functions inside probe or scanhead
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/004 Mounting transducers, e.g. provided with mechanical moving or orienting device mountings specially adapted to a particular sound-producing device, see the preceding groups G10K1/00 - G10K9/00, e.g. G10K1/26, G10K1/28, G10K9/22; arrangements of sonic watch equipment on submarines B63G8/39; buoys B63B22/00
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/345 using energy switching from one active element to another

Abstract

A hand held ultrasonic instrument is provided in a portable unit which performs both B mode and Doppler imaging. The instrument includes a transducer array mounted in a hand-held enclosure, with an integrated circuit transceiver connected to the elements of the array for the reception of echo signals. A digital signal processing circuit performs both B mode and Doppler signal processing such as filtering, detection and Doppler estimation, as well as advanced functions such as assembly of multiple zone focused scanlines, synthetic aperture formation, depth dependent filtering, speckle reduction, flash suppression, and frame averaging.

Claims

1. For use in a handheld ultrasound device including a transducer, beamformer and image processor, a digital signal processor comprising:

a digital B mode filter for filtering B mode signals;

a digital Doppler filter for filtering Doppler signals;

a B mode signal detection and mapping circuit; and

a Doppler signal estimator circuit.

2. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein said digital filters, said B mode signal detection and mapping circuit, and said Doppler signal estimator circuit are located on a digital signal processing integrated circuit chip.

3. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein common elements of said digital signal processor are used for Doppler processing of Doppler signals, and also for B mode processing of B mode signals.

4. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 3, wherein said common elements include elements of said digital filter circuits.

5. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 4, wherein said digital signal processor includes a digital filter which is operated as a bandpass filter for B mode signals, and as a high pass filter for Doppler signals.

6. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 4, wherein said digital signal processor includes a digital filter which is operated as a bandpass filter for B mode signals and as a wall filter for Doppler signals.

7. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein said digital signal processor further includes a normalization circuit for normalizing variations in the transducer aperture.

8. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein said digital signal processor further includes means for forming a synthetic aperture.

9. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein said digital signal processor further includes a depth dependent filter.

10. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein said digital signal processor further includes a speckle reduction circuit.

11. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein said digital signal processor further includes a flash suppression circuit for Doppler signals.

12. In the handheld ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein said digital signal processor further includes means for assembling scanlines from multiple focal zones.

13. In a handheld ultrasound device as defined by claim 1, the weight of the ultrasound device being less than five pounds.