Sonosite, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Geoffrey Hugh Jones

Juin-Jet Hwang

Lauren S Pflugrath

Terrance R Doherty

Randall Brian Sprague

David Skurnik

Eric Charles Abbott

Waisiu Law

Terrence R Doherty

Blake W Little

Justin M Coughlin

Ramachandra Pailoor

Davin Dhatt

Juin- Jet Hwang

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.

Ultrasonic signal processor for a hand held ultrasonic diagnostic instrument

An apparatus for detecting a centroid of a spot produced by electromagnetic radiation, e.g., optic radiation, using an array of PIN photodiodes serving as photodetectors and being organized in columns and in rows. Vertical connections are used to interconnect the PIN photodiodes in the columns in accordance with a first pattern that interconnects two or more adjacent columns. Horizontal connections are used to interconnect PIN photodiodes in the rows in accordance with a second pattern that interconnects two or more adjacent rows. The first and second patterns of interconnections can include just two adjacent columns and two adjacent rows, respectively and form a checkerboard interconnect pattern. The interconnections are made such that there are no anode connections between the PIN photodiodes in the rows and columns. The apparatus has a processing circuitry for rapidly deriving an X-extent of the centroid from current signals obtained from the columns and a Y-extent of the centroid from current signals obtained from the rows.

Very high speed photodetector system using a PIN photodiode array for position sensing

A portable ultrasonic diagnostic instrument including an array transducer, a beamformer, signal processing and imaging circuitry, and a display for the processed echo signals operates on no more than 25 watts of electrical power. Circuit functions can be selecting attend depending on mode of operation of the instrument to thereby reduce power consumption. Further, a power monitor and control can monitor electrical current from a battery power source, and when power consumption reaches a pre-determined level the power monitor and control further alters one or more functional units in the instrument including display mode of operation, clock frequency for analog to digital conversion and signal processing, color signal processing, and 3D signal processing. Power consumption can be monitored against two or more pre-determined levels wherein instrument functional units or mode of operation are altered depending on which level of power consumption has been reached. In an instrument with an analog beamformer power consumption can be limited to 10 watts, whereas in a digital beamformer instrument power consumption can be limited to no more than 25 watts.

Low power portable ultrasonic diagnostic instrument

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 including wall filtering matrix and Hartley transform matrix functions, 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. The advent of color flow imaging based on Doppler frequency estimation in medical ultrasound addresses a need for rapid assessment of overall flow characteristics in cardiac care. Typical prior art implementation utilize a high degree of temporal filtering in order to enhance the flow signal, but makes the image slow to respond to changes in flow. This is true of both directional and non-directional implementations, and is necessitated by the instability of traditional estimation techniques that are derived from older color flow techniques. A significant advantage of the present invention is excellent stability of both power and direction estimates.

Ultrasonic signal processor for power doppler imaging in a hand held ultrasonic diagnostic instrument

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Geoffrey Hugh Jones