Miniaturized ultrasound apparatus and method
First Claim
1. Ultrasound apparatus for examining an area of tissue in a region of interest in a body comprising a housing having a viewing aperture, an ultrasonic transducer comprised of an array of ultrasonic elements disposed in the viewing aperture and having an inherent resolution, means substantially transparent to ultrasound carried by the housing forming an impedance matching lens overlying the array and having a surface capable of being placed in contact with the body, means for supplying transmitted electrical pulses to said transducer for a single transducer excitation to introduce ultrasonic signals into the body for reflection from an area of the tissue in the region of interest, said transducer being capable of converting ultrasonic signals reflected from within the body to provide electrical signals of raw date for the area of tissue, means for digitizing and storing the electrical signals and means for processing the digitized electrical signals to form one image frame from the raw data for a single area.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Ultrasound apparatus for examining tissue in a region of interest in a body comprising a housing having a viewing aperture. An ultrasonic transducer is provided comprised of an array of ultrasonic elements disposed in the viewing aperture. Electrical pulses are supplied to the transducer for transducer excitation to introduce ultrasonic signals into the body for reflection from the tissue in the region of interest. The transducer is capable of converting ultrasonic signals reflected from the tissue within the body to the transducer to provide electrical signals. The electrical signals are gain corrected in accordance with time. In-phase and out-of-phase components of the electrical signals are provided and then digitized. The digitized electrical signals are collected to form one image for a single frame of the tissue in the region of interest in the body from transducer excitations less than thirty-three in number which is then displayed.
354 Citations
52 Claims
- 1. Ultrasound apparatus for examining an area of tissue in a region of interest in a body comprising a housing having a viewing aperture, an ultrasonic transducer comprised of an array of ultrasonic elements disposed in the viewing aperture and having an inherent resolution, means substantially transparent to ultrasound carried by the housing forming an impedance matching lens overlying the array and having a surface capable of being placed in contact with the body, means for supplying transmitted electrical pulses to said transducer for a single transducer excitation to introduce ultrasonic signals into the body for reflection from an area of the tissue in the region of interest, said transducer being capable of converting ultrasonic signals reflected from within the body to provide electrical signals of raw date for the area of tissue, means for digitizing and storing the electrical signals and means for processing the digitized electrical signals to form one image frame from the raw data for a single area.
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34. Ultrasound apparatus for examining tissue in a region of interest in a body comprising a housing having a viewing aperture, an ultrasonic transducer comprised of an array of ultrasonic elements disposed in the viewing aperture and having an inherent resolution, means substantially transparent to ultrasound carried by the housing forming an impedance matching lens overlying the array and having a surface capable of being placed in contact with the body, means for supplying transmitted electrical pulses to said at least one transducer for single transducer excitation but less than six to introduce ultrasonic signals into the body for reflection from the tissue in the region of interest, said transducer being capable of converting ultrasonic signals reflected from within the body to provide electrical signals, means providing gain correction of the electrical signals in accordance with time, mixing means for providing in-phase and out-of-phase components of the gain corrected electrical signals, means for digitizing the in-phase and out-of-phase components of the electrical signals, means for collecting the digitized electrical signals to form one image for a single frame of the tissue in the region of interest in the body from transducer excitations less than thirty-three in number, memory means for storing the digitized electrical signals of the single frame by storing the magnitude, phase angle and time of receipt of each received digitized electrical signal to provide preprocessed data, display means to utilize the preprocessed data and means coupling the memory means to the display means to provide a visual image of the tissue in the region of interest in the body herein the means for collecting the digitized electrical signals includes means for selecting a wave packet of electrical signals in space having a center, means for selecting a point (x,y) in the wave packet, means for calculating the distance from the center of the wave packet around the point (x,y) to a selected element of the array of the transducer, means for converting distance to time to select the sample points, means for interpolating the phase and magnitude between the nearest sample points and the point to be calculated to determine the corrected phase and magnitude of the point being calculated, means for repeating the same sequence of steps for each of the ultrasonic elements of the array of the transducer, means for summing the calculated points of corrected phase and magnitude and means for incrementing (x,y) to obtain the center of the next wave packet to be utilized for calculating additional points of the image.
- 35. A method for examining tissue of an area in a region of interest in a body by the use of an ultrasound transducer comprised of an array of ultrasonic elements in which the transducer is excited by a single excitation by received ultrasonic signals to provide electrical signals, the method comprising the steps of receiving the electrical signals from the transducer of a single excitation, providing raw data of the area, digitizing and storing the electrical signals and processing the digitized electrical signals to form one image frame from the raw data of a single area of the tissue in the region of interest in the body.
- 40. Ultrasound apparatus for examining an area of tissue in a region of interest in a body by the use of a human hand comprising a housing, said housing being pocket sized and being adapted to fit within a human hand, said housing having a viewing aperture and an ultrasonic transducer comprised of an array of ultrasonic elements disposed in the viewing aperture, means within the housing for supplying transmitted electrical signals to said ultrasonic transducer to introduce ultrasonic signals into the body from a single excitation to insonify said area and cause ultrasonic signals to be reflected from said isonified area, said transducer being capable of converting said ultrasonic signals of a single excitation reflected from within the body to provide electrical signals of raw date of the isonified area, a digitizer for digitizing the electrical signals to provide digitized electrical signals, a memory for storing the digitized electrical signals and a processor for processing the stored digitized electrical signals to form one image frame from the raw data of the isonified area, a visible display mounted on the housing and means within the housing for receiving the electrical signals received from the transducer and coupling the electrical signals to the visible display to provide a visual image of the tissue in the region of interest in the body.
- 44. A method for examining an area of tissue in a region of interest in a body by the use of a probe comprising a pocket-sized hand held housing having a viewing aperture therein, an ultrasonic transducer comprised of an array of ultrasonic elements disposed in the viewing aperture and a display mounted on the housing and coupled to the ultrasonic transducer, the method comprising grasping the probe and moving it over the body to examine the area of tissue in the body, isonifying said area with ultrasonic energy from a single excitation to cause ultrasonic energy to be reflected from the isonified area to provide raw data of the isonified area, creating an image frame from the raw data of the isonified area and viewing the image frame being displayed on the display means while the housing is being held by the hand and being moved over the body.
- 46. Ultrasonic apparatus for examining of an area of tissue in a region of interest in a body by the use of a human hand comprising a housing having display means mounted thereon and being pocket-sized and adapted to fit within a human hand and an ultrasonic transducer comprised of an array of ultrasonic elements adapted to be placed in contact with the body for viewing the region of interest, means for connecting the ultrasonic transducer to the housing, means within the housing coupled to the ultrasonic transducer for isonifying said area with ultrasonic energy to cause ultrasonic energy from a single excitation to be reflected from the isonified area to provide raw data of the isonified area, means for creating an image frame from the raw data of the isonified area and means for displaying a visual image of the image frame.
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52. Ultrasound apparatus for examining an area of tissue in a region of interest in the body by use of a human hand comprising a housing, said housing being pocket sized and being adapted to fit within a human hand, said housing including a detachable part, said detachable part having a viewing aperture therein, an ultrasonic transducer comprised of an array of ultrasonic elements disposed in the viewing aperture and within the detachable part, said detachable part having a specific frequency range suited for a specific imaging objective, memory means carried by the detachable part and having incorporated in its memory the frequency range of the detachable part and means carried by the detachable part and the housing for informing the housing of the frequency range of the detachable part.
Specification