Siemens Medical Solutions Usa, Inc.

Other

Steven R Martin

Michael T Reynolds

David A Peteresen

D-l Donald Liu

Daniel Brueske

Brian Vincent Colby

Receive circuits and associated methods are provided for ultrasound imaging. Both subarray mixing and time division multiplexing are provided with a same circuit. Components of the receive circuit respond to either phasing or time slot information to implement subarray mixing or time division multiplexing. A network of switches allows combination of signals from different elements to form different sub-apertures. A controller minimizes power consumption while outputting the desired phase or time division multiplexed information by gating a clock to various registers. Each of the registers corresponds to different groups of transducer elements. For loading new phasing information, the clock is turned on to the desired register. Duration operation of the receive circuit, the clock is gated off. The register outputs the previously loaded values in a static state without clocking. Preamplification for either of time division or subarray mixed signals is provided using a variable gain amplifier with a common mode feedback. The common mode feedback provides for a constant operating point despite changes in the desired amount of gain.

Receive circuit for minimizing channels in ultrasound imaging

Ultrasound information for B-mode and CW Doppler mode use the same digital beamformer. Due to sigma-delta conversion or over sampling, sufficient dynamic range is provided for the desired bandwidth. By mixing the input ultrasound information to base band before conversion, additional dynamic range may be provided. The electrical impedance may be better matched to elements by connecting a different number of sigma-delta converters to an element. Elements with lower impedance may be connected to a plurality of sigma-delta converters. To increase the aperture size for elements with a higher impedance, the same sigma-delta converters may be used as separate receive beamformer channels without the summation.

Universal ultrasound sigma-delta receiver path

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North Bend, WA, United States of America

Steven R Martin