Medical diagnostic ultrasound system and method
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A medical diagnostic ultrasonic receive beamformer responsive to a plurality of receive signals, said beamformer comprising a signal processing path, said beamformer further comprising:
- at least one upsampler in the path, each upsampler operative to upsample a respective set of receive signals;
at least one time delay device in the path downstream of the upsampler, each time delay device operative to apply focusing delays to a respective set of upsampled receive signals;
at least one summer in the path downstream of the upsampler, each summer operative to sum at least two of the upsampled, delayed receive signals; and
at least one smoothing filter in the path downstream of the time delay device, each filter operative to filter the summed, delayed, upsampled receive signals;
wherein each of the at least one upsampler, time delay device, summer, and smoothing filter are implemented in a programmable gate array.
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Abstract
A medical diagnostic ultrasound receive beamformer includes an upsampler upstream of a time delay device and a summer, and a smoothing filter downstream of the time delay device and the summer. The receive beamformer is automatically programmed into a gate array as a single-beam, dynamic-focus receive beamformer when the user selects B-mode and as a dual-beam, fixed-focus receive beamformer when the user selects color flow mode.
134 Citations
9 Claims
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1. A medical diagnostic ultrasonic receive beamformer responsive to a plurality of receive signals, said beamformer comprising a signal processing path, said beamformer further comprising:
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at least one upsampler in the path, each upsampler operative to upsample a respective set of receive signals;
at least one time delay device in the path downstream of the upsampler, each time delay device operative to apply focusing delays to a respective set of upsampled receive signals;
at least one summer in the path downstream of the upsampler, each summer operative to sum at least two of the upsampled, delayed receive signals; and
at least one smoothing filter in the path downstream of the time delay device, each filter operative to filter the summed, delayed, upsampled receive signals;
wherein each of the at least one upsampler, time delay device, summer, and smoothing filter are implemented in a programmable gate array. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A medical diagnostic ultrasonic receive beamformer responsive to a plurality of receive signals, said beamformer comprising a signal processing path, said beamformer further comprising:
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at least one upsampler in the path, each upsampler operative to upsample a respective set of receive signals;
at least one time delay device in the path downstream of the upsampler, each time delay device operative to apply focusing delays to a respective set of upsampled receive signals;
at least one summer in the path downstream of the upsampler, each summer operative to sum at least two of the upsampled, delayed receive signals; and
at least one smoothing filter in the path downstream of the time delay device, each filter operative to filter the summed, delayed, upsampled receive signals;
wherein the time delay devices comprise first and second time delay devices associated with a central and an edge sub-aperture, respectively, wherein the first and second time delay devices are operative to delay the respective upsampled receive signals by a maximum of M and N clock cycles, respectively, and where N is greater than M.
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6. A medical diagnostic ultrasonic receive beamformer responsive to a plurality of receive signals, said beamformer comprising a signal processing path, said beamformer further comprising:
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at least one upsampler in the path, each upsampler operative to upsample a respective set of receive signals;
at least one time delay device in the path downstream of the upsampler, each time delay device operative to apply focusing delays to a respective set of upsampled receive signals;
at least one summer in the path downstream of the upsampler, each summer operative to sum at least two of the upsampled, delayed receive signals; and
at least one smoothing filter in the path downstream of the time delay device, each filter operative to filter the summed, delayed, upsampled receive signals;
wherein the at least one summer comprises a plurality of summers, each summer operative to sum upsampled, delayed receive signals associated with two adjacent sub-apertures.
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7. A method for reprogramming a medical diagnostic ultrasound receive beamformer, said method comprising:
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(a) providing a programmable logic device;
(b) programming the logic device as a variable-focus receive beamformer operative to form M receive beams from a single transmit event; and
(c) re-programming the logic device as a fixed-focus receive beamformer operative to form N receive beams from a single transmit event, where N is greater than M;
wherein at least one of (b) and (c) is initiated in response to a user selection. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
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Specification