Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Atl Ultrasound, Inc.

Advanced Technology Laboratories, Inc.

Brent Stephen Robinson

Clifford R Cooley

David N Roundhill

John Douglas Fraser

Robert Randall Entrekin

Gary Allen Schwartz

Jeffry E Powers

Michalakis Averkiou

Matthew Bruce

Danny M Skyba

James Robertson Jago

Andrew Lee Robinson

Juin-Jet Hwang

Paul Ross Detmer

Robert R Entrekin

Patrick Ren&eacute; Pesque

Thomas J Sabourin

Karl E Thiele

Ronald Elvin Daigle

Jean-Luc Robert

James L Moore

Michael R Burcher

Daniel C Schmiesing

Michael Burcher

Derek Henderson

Philip Keller

Patrick Rene' Pesque

Clifford Cooley

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces an image with an extended focal range by transmitting a plurality of beams spaced along an array for multiline reception. The receive multilines of a plurality of transmit beams are spatially aligned and are combined with phase adjustment between the respective receive multilines to prevent undesired phase cancellation. The combined multilines produce the effect of an extended transmit focus so that an image produced using the combined multilines exhibits an extended focal range. To prevent motion artifacts the multiline order is adjustable as a function of image motion.

Ultrasonic synthetic transmit focusing with a multiline beamformer

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method are described in which spatially compounded images are produced by transmitting ultrasound beams in different directions during a common transmit-receive interval. Echoes are received from the different beam directions and are beamformed by a multiline beamformer to produce differently steered beams of coherent echo signals. The echoes are combined on a spatial basis with echoes from different look directions which correspond to the same spatial location being combined. The resulting spatially compounded image is displayed.

Ultrasonic spatial compounding with multiple simultaneous beam transmission

A synthetic focus ultrasound system is described which is operated in a hybrid fashion. System operation alternates between synthetic focus acquisition and conventional focused beam acquisition. This makes possible, for example, the acquisition and display of harmonic images. Speckle artifacts in the synthetic focused ultrasound images may be reduced by combining signals from different sub-apertures which view the image field from different look directions. In a described embodiment, sets of motion maps are be produced for different sub-apertures of the array transducer, then compounded to reduce speckle. One or more identified regions of interest within a synthetic focused ultrasound image may be processed differently from other regions of the image to highlight or better define particular motional characteristics within the regions of interest, such as turbulent flow or different velocities of flow or motion.

Synthetically focused ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for tissue and flow imaging

A digital multiline beamformer is provided which produces multiple receive beams in response to a single transmit event. An embodiment of the present invention includes a bulk delay which provides a common steering delay applicable to all of the beams received at one time. The bulk delay is succeeded by parallel filter processing paths which produce finely focused multiple beams simultaneously. In one embodiment a multiphase filter produces the samples for multiple beams, which is advantageous when the number of simultaneously produced beams is greater than the number of phases produced by the fine focus filter.

Multiline ultrasound beamformers

A synthetic focus ultrasound system is described in which individual transducer elements are activated to insonify the image field and the resultant echoes are received by a plurality of elements of the array. The echo signals are stored and the complete echo set is used to produce motion maps for different velocity vectors over the image field. Various ones of the motion maps are used to produce a wide variety of ultrasound image modes, including grey-scale images, colorflow images, and spectral flow displays.

An ultrasonic imaging method and apparatus are described for imaging the coronary arteries of the heart. The vascular system is infused with an ultrasonic contrast agent. A volumetric region of the heart wall including a coronary artery is three dimensionally scanned. A projection image of the volumetric region is produced from the scanning, providing a two dimensional contrast image of the coronary artery with the appearance of an angiogram. Preferably the coronary artery signals are segmented from contrast signals emanating from the myocardium and the heart blood pool so that the coronary arteries are clearly highlighted and distinct in the ultrasonic angiogram.

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging transducer with hexagonal patches

A system, method, and machine readable program for performing ultrasonic Fat TX, Multiline RX imaging is provided, wherein the system comprises a transmitter to launch an ultrasound beam toward a target, the beam having a predetermined spatial energy profile in at least one location in the target, the transmitter including a plurality of transducer elements, each transducer element capable of producing a selected waveform having a desired shape; a transmitter processor configured to control the shape of the waveform produced by each transducer element, wherein the spatial energy profile of the beam is controlled by controlling the shape of the waveform produced by each transducer element; a receiver to receive energy from the ultrasound beam directed toward the target from the transmitter; and a receiver processor configured to process the received energy to determine image data representative of the target.

System, method and machine readable program for performing ultrasonic fat beam transmission and multiline receive imaging

An ultrasonic 2D array has elements extending in two dimensions which can be individually controlled and operated to form a 2D array for scanning a volumetric region in three dimensions. Individual ones of the elements can also be selected and operated together to form a 1D array for scanning a planar region in two dimensions. The array transmits scanlines to scan the volumetric region and the planar region in a time interleaved manner with the frame rate of the planar region be higher than that of the volumetric region. A spectral display may also be produced of a sample volume located in the planar region.

2D ultrasonic transducer array for two dimensional and three dimensional imaging

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging with interpolated scanlines

Multiline acquisition is used to acquire groups of beams in response to transmit pulses. At least some of the beams from spatially adjacent groups are coaxially aligned. The echo information is detected and coaxially aligned beams are blended together using weighting functions which vary as a function of the time and location of the blended beams from their transmit beam apertures to gradually blend the aligned beams together spatially, thereby reducing multiline image artifacts. Echoes from moving objects in coaxially aligned beams may be aligned axially before the beams are blended together.

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging systems with blended multiline for 2D and 3D applications

Three dimensional ultrasonic diagnostic imaging with high density hexagonal acquisition

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system transducer array with multiline patches

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging of the coronary arteries

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is provided which produces scanlines with synthesized transmit foci at a high frame rate of display. Beams are transmitted and received which have different beam steering and focal characteristics. At least one of the received beams is weighted and the steering and focal characteristics of the weighted received beams are interpolated to form scanlines for display which exhibit the focal properties of both beams.

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system with high frame rate synthetic transmit focus

Growing community of inventors

Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Brent Stephen Robinson