U.S. Philips Corporation

Jean-Marie C Nicolas

Patrick R Pesque

Louis C Guillou

Arthur G Mason

Gerald O Crowther

Peter R Brennand

Jean-Luc Bernatets

Wilhelmus M Dorn

Henry J Beker

Stanley M Edwardson

Peter M Jenner

Luc Emiel Boes

Edmund R Brown

Stephen R Ely

Sylvia M Jennings

Michael J Knee

A method and device of scanning objects by means of ultrasound echography by repeated transmission of ultrasound signals and the reception of the ultrasound echoes includes the following operations:

Method of and apparatus for scanning objects by means of ultrasound

A device for scanning objects, notably biological tissues, by means of ultrasound echography, which device includes at least one ultrasound transducer (10) which is connected to a transmitter stage (20) for the repeated transmission of ultrasound waves to the object to be examined, and to a receiver stage for receiving the echoes reflected in the direction of the transducer. The device in accordance with the invention is characterized mainly in that the receiver stage includes:

Device for scanning objects by means of ultrasound echography

A biological or other material is scanned along a line or plurality of lines by at least one transducer, and the signals received are separated into n substantially equal, consecutive frequency bands after which the envelope of the signals in each frequency band is determined. Each of the signal envelopes, being proportional to the power spectrum of the echographic signal, is divided by a dividing signal which is proportional to the power spectrum of a phantom which has the same attenuation as the object being examined, the logarithm being determined of the signal resulting from this division, after which the following operations are performed in the channels a, b, . . . , i, . . . n on the basis of the signals thus obtained: (a) calculating the logarithm of a frequency which is representative of the passband of each channel; (b) storing in a memory and/or displaying a function of the ratio of the scatter function of the object scanned and the scatter function of the phantom as a function of the frequency mentioned sub (a); as a representation of the object's scatter function.

Method of and device for measuring an ultrasound scatter function

Pseudo-random binary sequence generators

An apparatus for the examination of objects with ultrasound, comprising a linear or two-dimensional array (10) of piezo-electric transducer elements (10 (1), . . . , 10 (n)) with a length L and a width W, a stage for the repeated transmission of ultrasonic signals and a stage for the reception and processing of the ultrasonic echoes received. The thickness T of the elements is equal to half the wavelength corresponding to a first frequency F for which there exists, on the two-dimensional diagram of the curves F.multidot.T=f(W/T), or respectively, on the three-dimensional diagram of the curves F.multidot.T=f(W/T, L/T) of the distribution of the resonance frequencies, a first vibratory mode at the said first frequency F and a second vibratory mode at a second frequency equal to or near 2F. The transmission stage incorporates a generator (20) of excitation signals at the first frequency F, the spectrum of these excitation signals excluding at least the second frequency.

Apparatus for the examination of objects with ultra-sound, comprising an

The combined modality device comprises an ultrasound transducer (10) which is suitable for transmission as well as reception and which is connected to a transmitter stage (20) as well as to a receiver stage (30). The transducer (10) has a bandwidth which at least equals approximately one octave. The transmitter stage (20) comprises a generator for generating activation signals for the transducer (10) with a frequency f.sub.o near the lower limit of said bandwidth, the spectrum of these activation signals excluding the frequency f.sub.1 =2f.sub.o. The receiver stage (30) comprises a B-scan channel and also a B/A processing channel (200) which itself includes a bandpass filter (210) which is centered around said frequency f.sub.1, an envelope detector (220, 230), a comparison circuit (240), a differentiation circuit (250) and a display device (260) whereby measured results in both modalities may be displayed.

Device for combined B-scan and B/A imaging

A method of scanning objects by means of ultrasound echography, including the repeated transmission of ultrasound signals by means of at least one ultrasound transducer and the reception of the ultrasound echoes which correspond to the principal obstacles encountered by the transmitted signals in their propagation direction, characterized in that the method includes the following operations:

Method of and device for scanning objects by means of ultrasound

An apparatus for examining objects by ultrasonic echography comprising an ultrasonic transmitting transducer (10) and an ultrasonic receiving transducer (20), with which are associated a transmitter stage (30), a receiver stage (40) constituted by a channel (100) for processing the echo signals reflected to the receiving transducer by the obstacles they meet in the said region and a storage and/or visualization stage (60), characterized in that the transmitting transducer (10) is at the same time a receiver and in that the receiver stage (40) also comprises a channel (200) for processing the output signals of the said transmitting/receiving transducer (10) thus formed and a subtraction device (500), whose output is connected to a first input (560) of the storage and/or visualization stage and whose two inputs receive the output signals of the said channels (100) and (200) representative of the real and theoretical travelling times, respectively, between the transducers.

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Paris, France

Jean-Marie C Nicolas