Systems and methods for ultrasound beam forming data control

• US 9,151,832 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2011
• Issued: 10/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FUJIFILM SonoSite, Inc. (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: FUJIFILM SonoSite, Inc. (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Little, Blake W., Duffy, Thomas M., Coughlin, Justin
• Primary Examiner(s): Cattungal, Sanjay
• Application Number:
  US13/306,929
• Publication Number:
  US 20120195161A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,407 Days
• Field of Search: 600437-469, 73625-633
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8929 using a three-dimensional transducer configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52034 Data rate converters
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/34 using electrical steering of transducer arrays, e.g. beam steering constructional aspects B06B1/0607, B06B1/085
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/341 Circuits therefor

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods which efficiently control storage of and/or access to data which includes repetitive data or data which is used by different modes, processes, etcetera. Embodiments provide control for storage of and/or access to large amounts of data used in ultrasound system beam forming for image generation using a hierarchy of sequencers for controlling storage of and/or access to data. A frame sequencer may provide control at a frame level while an address sequencer is implemented to provide control at a data access level.

Claims

1. An ultrasound imaging system comprising:

a memory configured to store a single copy of beam forming parameters for each beam that can be created by the ultrasound system, and

a hierarchy of sequencers including a frame sequencer configured to store parameters for a number of lines for a frame of ultrasound data to be created and an address sequencer configured to compute an address in the memory where beam forming parameters for a current line of the frame can be retrieved, wherein the frame sequencer is configured to provide parameters for a current line in the frame to the address sequencer and wherein the address sequencer is configured to compute an address in the memory for retrieving the beam forming parameters for each line in the frame on a line by line basis based on the parameters received from the frame sequencer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said memory stores information that includes information other than been forming parameters.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said information stored in said memory comprises pointer information identifying where the beam forming parameters which are used in creating the beams are stored.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said frame sequencer is initialized for use in different imaging modes by providing parameters thereto.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said address is determined as an offset from a base address in at least one dimension of an array in said memory.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said hierarchy of sequencers are implemented in one or more application specific circuits.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said ultrasound imaging system comprises a portable diagnostic ultrasound instrument.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said memory stores the beam forming parameters in at least a three dimensional array.

9. The ultrasound system of claim 1, wherein the address sequencer is configured to compute the address for the beam forming parameters for the current line based on offsets to a base address that are associated with an imaging mode, an imaging zone and a current line in the frame of ultrasound data to be created.

10. The ultrasound system of claim 9, further comprising front end circuitry, configured to access the memory and wherein the base address is a register address space of the front end circuitry.

11. A method performed by a processor of an ultrasound system to access beam forming parameters to be used in ultrasound imaging system beam forming, said method comprising:

sending parameters for a current line to be created in a frame of ultrasound data from a frame sequencer to an address sequencer, wherein the parameters are indicative of a zone to be imaged and an imaging mode for the current line, and

computing an address in the address sequencer from which beam forming parameters are to be retrieved from a memory that stores a single copy of the beam forming parameters for each beam that can be created by the ultrasound system, wherein the address sequencer computes an address of the beam forming parameters for a current line on a line-by-line basis based on one or more of the parameters received from the frame sequencer; and

retrieving the beam forming parameters for the current line from the computed address.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said memory is configured as a multi-dimensional array that stores beam forming parameters at locations that can be accessed based on at least an image mode and an image zone.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising retrieving information from said multi-dimensional array that comprises information other than beam forming parameters.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising retrieving pointer information from the multi-dimensional array that identifies where the beam forming parameters for a line are stored.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein said multi-dimensional array comprises at least a three dimensional array.