General Electric Company

Scott D Cogan

Robert Gideon Wodnicki

Charles Gerard Woychik

Bruno Hans Haider

Shinichi Amemiya

David Martin Mills

Rayette Ann Fisher

David Richard Esler

Geir Ultveit Haugen

Jeffrey Scott Erlbaum

Lukas Bauer

Systems are disclosed for ultrasound beamforming on an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In certain embodiments, the system includes an ultrasound probe that includes a plurality of transducer elements electrically coupled to an ASIC. The ASIC includes a plurality of waveform generators electrically coupled to a plurality of delay units. Each delay unit receives a waveform from a waveform generator or an adjacent delay unit, applies a delay to the waveform, and outputs the waveform to adjacent delay units, one or more of the plurality of transducer elements, or both. The delays that are provided to waveforms before being output to a transducer element determine the beamforming characteristics of the ultrasonic pulses generated by the ultrasound probe.

Delta delay approach for ultrasound beamforming on an ASIC

Exemplary ultrasound probes with sub-aperture processing capable of dynamic focus are provided that generally include an array of transducer elements that form a sub-aperture in the ultrasound probe. The transducer elements can be assigned to dynamic delay update groups and an initial delay can be applied to ultrasound signals associated with the transducer elements of the sub-aperture. A sub-aperture processor can be configured to dynamically apply delay updates to the ultrasound signals associated with the transducer elements of the sub-aperture according to the dynamic delay update groups to which the transducer elements are assigned. Exemplary ultrasound systems with a dynamic focus and methods of transmitting ultrasound signals with a dynamic focus are also provided.

Ultrasound probe with dynamic focus and associated systems and methods

A method for dynamically reconfiguring elements in an ultrasound transducer array is provided. The method includes defining two or more groups of the elements in the array, wherein each element individually comprises a first switch, and a second switch; providing boundary definitions information to the elements in the array to define boundaries for the two or more groups; and locally determining switch configuration state within the array for the first and second switch of one or more elements based on the boundary definitions. Further, a switch matrix configured to locally determine switch settings is provided. Furthermore, a system comprising an array of ultrasonic transducer subelements is provided.

Reconfigurable array with locally determined switch configuration

A modular sensor assembly and methods of fabricating a modular sensor assembly are provided. The modular sensor assembly includes a sensor array coupled to an electronics array in a stacked configuration. The sensor array comprises a plurality of sensor modules, each comprising a plurality of sensor sub-arrays. The electronics array comprises a plurality of integrated circuit modules, each comprising a plurality of integrated circuit chips. The sensor modules may be coupled to the electronics modules via flip chip technology.

Modular sensor assembly and methods of fabricating the same

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Niskayuna, NY, United States of America

Scott D Cogan