Siemens Medical Systems, Inc.

Siemens Medical Solutions Usa, Inc.

Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., Ltd.

Lin X Yao

Zoran B Banjanin

Jin H Kim

Hisashi Hagiwara

Hiroshi Fukukita

Masami Kawabuchi

John C Lazenby

David A Petersen

Bruce A McDermott

Qinglin Ma

Robert N Phelps

Gregg Miller

Gan Yao

Todor Sheljaskow

A two-dimensional array allows rapid three-dimensional ultrasound scanning. A high volume-per-second scan rate using a limited number of system channels (e.g. 192, 256 or other number of channels) is provided by a transducer array without beamforming circuitry in the probe. A fan beam of acoustic energy is transmitted along a scan plane from transducer elements that extend lengthwise over a substantial portion of the lateral aperture. Rows of these long transmit elements are provided along the elevation aperture for electronic steering of the fan beam in the elevation dimension. One or more rows of smaller receive elements are used for forming beams each representing a scan line along the lateral dimension in response to each transmission of a fan beam. Elevation resolution is provided primarily from the elevationally spaced transmit elements and partially from two or more rows of laterally spaced receive elements. The lateral resolution is responsive to the lateral spacing of the receive elements.

Two dimensional array and methods for imaging in three dimensions

Methods are described for parallel beamforming with beam combination of formed beams from different transmit beams in an ultrasound imaging system. The methods provide advantages because the combination of receive beams that are produced from different transmit beams enables the production of an ultrasonic image at faster frame rates that does not suffer from the image quality degradation normally associated with parallel beamforming, and does not require process intensive interpolation.

Beam combination method and system

A system for controlling the point spread function of an ultrasound signal transmitted into a patient. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, only a selected number of the transducer elements transmit a transmit pulse. The elements which do not transmit the pulse are selected in accordance with an apodization probability density function. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, each transducer element transmits a variable portion of a transmit pulse in order to control the acoustic power of the signal transmitted from each element.

Ultrasound transmission method and system for simulating a transmit apodization

A method for receiving Doppler ultra sound signals at a high sample rate, at greater depths and from a large range gate size by increasing the length of time during which echoes can be received with respect to the time required to transmit the Doppler pulses that cause the echo signals to be created. According to a first embodiment of the invention, a Doppler pulse is transmitted for a time equal to the time required for an ultrasonic sound wave to travel from a transducer to a top of a range gate and back. Echo signals created in response to the long Doppler pulse are received for a time equal to the transmit time plus the time required for an ultrasonic sound wave to travel from the top of the range gate to a bottom of the range gate and back to the top of the range gate. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, each transducer element transmits a phase-shifted Doppler pulse, wherein the phase-shift is selected according to the time required for an ultrasonic sound wave to travel from the transducer element to a desired focal point. By simultaneously transmitting the phase-shifted Doppler pulses, the pulses arrive at different times at the focal point and constructively add. Echo signals created in response to the sum of the phase-shifted Doppler pulses can be sampled at substantially any rate to analyze the moving blood flow in the area of tissue defined by a range gat.

High sample rate doppler ultrasound system

A method and apparatus of operating an ultrasound imaging apparatus so as to obtain continuous wave (CW) Doppler data from a user selected area comprises operating a multiple element transducer array and its associated delay and signal processing circuitry so as to develop and display in substantially real-time a two-dimensional ultrasound image, operating a user controllable device so as to cause a display of at least one controllable position marker in substantially real-time within the displayed two-dimensional ultrasound image, which marker selects an area of sensitivity within the ultrasound image for which it is desired to obtain CW Doppler data, operating the multiple element transducer array and its associated delay signal processing circuitry based upon the position of the selected area so that,

User control for steerable CW doppler

In accordance with the principles of the present invention, advantage is taken by the inventors of the fact that the speed of operation of the digital hardware in a digital beamformer can be reduced by providing, for example, multiple phases of the data signals and then processing the multi-phase data in N parallel summing paths. An interpolation-decimation filter receives the multi-phase data from the N parallel summing paths and provides at its output a signal having a reduced data rate (1/N). In accordance with this technique, the speed of operation of the individual digital circuits for forming the required beamforming delays is not increased as compared to conventional post-beamforming interpolation schemes, so that hereby the effective data rate is increased by a factor N and results in a decrease of the delay quantization error by a factor N. In accordance with the principles of the invention, the interpolation-decimation filter is incorporated into the beamformer at a most advantageous place. That is, it is incorporated into the beamformer processing after partial beamforming of a group of receive channels and before formation of the final beam. This approach allows the final beamforming to be simple and performed at a relatively low data rate and allows the higher rate signal processing to be confined to circuitry which may advantageously be on a single type of integrated circuit which is repetitively used in the beamformer. Further increase in the effective speed of operation is produced by providing timing circuitry that allows parallel processing of signals from a plurality of scanning beam lines.

Multi-beam digital beamforming method and apparatus

Time-of-flight calculations may be simplified by performing them on the fly at selected intervals and then interpolating the results to obtain a comprehensive set of values. The method and apparatus offer improved accuracy, speed, and hardware savings.

Real-time dynamic time-of-flight calculator

A Doppler medical ultrasound apparatus, comprising means for transmitting ultrasound energy into a body, a plurality of parallel channels for receiving echoes of the ultrasound energy, digitizing the echoes, and digitally forming a received beam signal therefrom, means for processing the beam signals to produce a Doppler signal representing movement in a target volume within the body, and means for displaying the Doppler signal, and further including a summing circuit for summing a common dither signal with each of the received echoes and an A/D converter for digitizing the received echo in each parallel channel having the common dither signal added thereto.

Digital processing for steerable CW doppler

In accordance with the principles of the present invention, advantage is taken by the inventors of the fact that the speed of operation of the digital hardware in a digital beamformer can be reduced by providing, for example, multiple phases of the data signals and then processing the multi-phase data in N parallel summing paths. An interpolation-decimation filter receives the multi-phase data from the N parallel summing paths and provides at its output a signal having a reduced data rate (1/N). In accordance with this technique, the speed of operation of the individual digital circuits for forming the required beamforming delays is not increased as compared to conventional post-beamforming interpolation schemes, so that hereby the effective data rate is increased by a factor N and results in a decrease of the delay quantization error by a factor N. In accordance with the principles of the invention, the interpolation-decimation filter is incorporated into the beamformer at a most advantageous place. That is, it is incorporated into the beamformer processing after partial beamforming of a group of receive channels and before formation of the final beam. This approach allows the final beamforming to be simple and performed at a relatively low data rate and allows the higher rate signal processing to be confined to circuitry which may advantageously be on a single type of integrated circuit which is repetitively used in the beamformer.

Partial beamforming

In accordance with the principles of the present invention, advantage is taken by the inventors of the fact that the speed of operation of the digital hardware in a digital beamformer having a plurality of parallel receiving channels can be reduced by providing multiple phases for the data signals supplied by each receiving channel and then processing the multi-phase data in N parallel summing paths. An interpolation-decimation filter receives the multi-phase data from the N parallel summing paths and provides at its output a signal having a reduced data rate (1/N). In accordance with this technique, the speed of operation of the individual digital circuits for forming the required beamforming delays are not increased as compared to conventional post-beamforming interpolation schemes, so that hereby the effective data rate is increased by a factor N and the delay quantization error is reduced by a factor N.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Lin X Yao