Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Theodore Philip Fazioli

Michael P Anthony

Lucien Johannes Breems

George Anthony Brock-Fisher

Gary Allen Schwartz

Raf Lodewijk Jan Roovers

Steven Russell Freeman

Charles R Dowdell

Joseph R Fallon

Ron Gatzke

Steven C Leavitt

A receive beamformer, and ultrasound system incorporating such a receive beamformer, is constructed to implement multi-bit analog to digital conversion in such a way that the need for gain control in the channel architecture preceding the digital conversion circuitry is obviated. Accordingly, the beamformer and any ultrasound system incorporating it may realize a rigorous level of ADC performance at desirable output rates, and a lower cost. Preferably, the invention construction realizes a level of performance by which CW Doppler may be digitized in the same manner as very wide-band pulsed-wave signals.

Ultrasonic signal acquisition in the digital beamformer

A portable, configurable and scalable ultrasonic imaging system uses a phased ultrasonic transducer array coupled to a portable, configurable and scalable ultrasonic processor to develop ultrasonic images. When used in conjunction with a sector phased array, the portable, configurable and scalable ultrasonic imaging system uses a processing channel associated with each element in the transducer array to develop the ultrasonic image. When used with a linear or curved linear transducer array, the portable, configurable and scalable ultrasonic processor uses fewer processing channels than transducer elements to develop the ultrasonic image. Since the portable, configurable and scalable ultrasonic processor is scalable, it is able to use a variety of processors, software and transducer arrays to develop a number of different ultrasonic output images. The portable, configurable and scalable ultrasound imaging system includes a scalable architecture and includes alternative software configurable imaging applications and operating modes, and includes modifiable processing algorithms and operating features.

Portable, configurable and scalable ultrasound imaging system

A Doppler receiver has a wide dynamic range and operates in a differential mode. In one embodiment, the invention is a wide dynamic range continuous wave (CW) Doppler receiver, comprising a differential fixed frequency output mixer configured to receive a radio frequency (RF) input signal and supply a differential signal output; a differential fixed frequency bandpass filter coupled to the differential fixed frequency output mixer and configured to provide a fixed frequency output; an in-phase mixer and a quadrature-phase mixer, each configured to receive a differential signal output of the differential fixed frequency bandpass filter; at least one in-phase filter configured to receive the output of the in-phase mixer and supply a filtered in-phase signal; at least one quadrature-phase filter configured to receive the output of the quadrature-phase mixer and supply a filtered quadrature-phase signal; and an analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the filtered in-phase signal and the filtered quadrature-phase signal and supply a corresponding in-phase digital output and a corresponding quadrature-phase digital output, the outputs of the analog-to-digital converter supplied to a memory element.

Wide dynamic range continuous wave (CW) Doppler receiver

A method and apparatus are provided for storing digitized video ultrasound images in a digital memory device to enable high quality ultrasound video images to be stored in real-time. The ultrasound image acquisition and video storage system of the present invention comprises an ultrasound image acquisition component and a digital video storage component. The ultrasound image acquisition component logic acquires ultrasound images over a period of time and converts them into digital video images in real-time as the images are acquired. The digital video storage logic obtains the digital video images from the ultrasound image acquisition component and stores the digital video images in a digital storage device in real-time.

Method and apparatus for performing real-time storage of ultrasound video image information

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Salem, NH, United States of America

Theodore Philip Fazioli