Hitachi Aloka Medical, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd.

Aloka Co., Ltd.

Jing-Wen Tsao

Masanori Hisatsu

Shingo Yoshizawa

Kenji Kumasaki

Kazuhiro Amino

Takashi Itoh

Takayuki Ohnishi

Masayuki Kosuge

Takuya Kaneko

Tatsuya Wakamatsu

In FIG.(A), a reception beam () is formed using a weighting function (). A position of a peak of the weighting function () is set at the position of the reception beam (). A reception beam () is formed using a weighting function (), and a position of a peak of the weighting function () is set at the position of the reception beam (). A reception beam () is formed using a weighting function () and a position of a peak of the weighting function () is set at a position of the reception beam (). In this manner, the positions of the peaks of the weighting functions () are shifted in the receive aperture, to follow movements of the reception beams () caused by electrical scanning.

Ultrasound diagnosis apparatus

In ultrasound images, there are many stationary echoes in the region superficial to the deep region comprising the heart. In the present invention, a HPF processing unit () filters frame data by applying a high pass filter, the characteristics of which have been set according to the depth in the frame, on the frame data at said depth. The high pass filter can be achieved, for example, with a digital filter and the characteristics of the high pass filter are adjusted by the filter-setting unit () setting the filter coefficient of said digital filter. That is to say, the filter coefficient in the HPF processing unit () is controlled by the filter-setting unit () so that the deeper the region, the higher the offset level is set.

Diagnostic ultrasound apparatus

A 2D array transduceris separated into a plurality of sub-arrays. Four representative sub-arrays from SAto SAare shown in an enlarged manner. In addition, the 2D array transducer () is segmented into a plurality of transducer regions. Four regions of (I)-(IV) segmented by dot-and-chain lines represent four transducer regions. For each sub-array, a delay process corresponding to the sub-array is executed based on a delay pattern defining an amount of delay for each of the plurality of transducer elements belonging to the sub-array. In this process, for each transducer region, a common delay pattern is set for the plurality of sub-arrays belonging to the transducer region. For example, because sub-arrays SAand SAbelong to the same transducer region (IV), a common delay pattern is set for the sub-arrays SAand SA

Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus

A 2D array transducer () is separated into a plurality of sub-arrays. Four representative sub-arrays SAto SAare shown in an enlarged manner. In addition, the 2D array transducer () is segmented into a plurality of transducer regions. Four regions of (I)-(IV) segmented by dot-and-chain lines represent four transducer regions. A grouping process is executed for each sub-array to group the plurality of transducer elements belonging to the sub-array into a plurality of element groups. In this process, for each transducer region, a common grouping pattern is set for the plurality of sub-arrays belonging to the transducer region. For example, because sub-arrays SAand SAbelong to the same transducer region (IV), a common grouping pattern is set for the sub-arrays SAand SA

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for forming an ultrasound beam based on a common grouping pattern

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus having a transmission circuit which generates a transmission signal is provided. The transmission signal corresponds to a combined waveform of a trapezoidal waveform and an impulse-shaped waveform (impulse portion). In an example transmission signal, a front slope portion, a flat portion, and a rear slope portion exist in a positive polarity side. The impulse portion has a shape which protrudes from an offset level over a base line into an opposite polarity side. Because the center frequency of the trapezoidal wave form is near the DC component, the trapezoidal wave form can substantially be ignored. The impulse portion has a large amplitude, but because the impulse portion exists over both polarities, there is no need to apply a special high voltage countermeasure for each polarity in designing the transmission circuit. A trapezoidal wave form of an opposite polarity may be added in front of the trapezoidal waveform.

In an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus, a first transmission signal including both of two fundamentals of frequencies f and 2f is transmitted, and then a second transmission signal having a polarity reverse that of the first transmission signal is transmitted. A receiving beam processor generates a signal in which the echoes of the two transmission signals are added, and a signal in which the echoes are subtracted. The fundamental components are canceled out by addition and a secondary harmonic component A generated by the non-linear interaction remains in the sum signal. In the subtraction signal, the fundamental component remains while the secondary harmonic component is canceled out by subtraction. The fundamental component A of the frequency 2f is extracted from the subtraction signal, and a ratio (A /A ) is calculated by a divider . A differentiating process is then executed by an HPF to obtain the evaluation value reflecting the non-linear parameter at each depth of the body.

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Mitaka, Japan

Jing-Wen Tsao