Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Ulrich Saugeon

Gert Hetzel

Dietmar Hiller

Klaus Buchner

Adalbert Birk

Viktor Zurinski

Gustav Boheim

Reiner Moeller

Phased-array apparatus has a number of ultrasonic transducer elements (E1 to E64) to which are associated delay line elements (M1, T1 to M64, T64, W1-1, W1-2, N1 to W16-1, W16-2, N16; W1 to W16; VL1 to VL64, VR1 to VR16) to provide reception. In order that the control angle may be adjusted with high accuracy, according to the inventive principles delay line elements are provided for the received signals with a short and with a long delay, and several adjacent channels are combined for signal processing. Due to this arrangement, economical constructions of embodiments of the invention are realized.

Phased-array equipment

A method and apparatus for digitally delaying ultrasound signals, which are reflected from a boundary surface inside of an examination subject, upon reception of the signals at an ultrasound receiver employ, in each channel, a shift register, a first multiplexer, another register, and interpolator and a further multiplexer to effect a selected delay. A number of interpolated ultrasound signals is formed from two successively received ultrasound signals. If the successive ultrasound signals are shifted by .DELTA..tau., the interpolated ultrasound signals will be shifted by a smaller time difference relative to each other, dependent on the fineness of the interpolation. That interpolated ultrasound signal or that received ultrasound signal having a delay value which is closest to a selected desired delay value is employed for further signal processing. A high precision in the chronological resolution can thus be achieved with a relatively low sampling rate in comparison to the chronological resolution.

Method and apparatus for digital delay of ultrasound signals upon

An ultrasonic array having a number of juxtaposed transducer elements is used for imaging. The reception aperture of the array is divided into individual sub-arrays. Each of these sub-arrays receives, after emission of an ultrasonic signal correlated with it into the object, echo signals reflected therefrom. The echo signals received by the respective sub-array and which are reflected from a common focal point are added up to form a sum signal. For this purpose, at least for some of the transducer elements the delivered output signals are time-delayed according to given patterns. This procedure is repeated for various points along each scan line. The sequentially obtained sum signals are superimposed at each point of the scan line to form a received signal. With this line-oriented method, the same processing channels (time-delays) can be used several times, i.e. successively for each sub-array. This leads to cost-effective production.

Method and apparatus for ultrasonic scanning of an object

An ultrasound apparatus permitting dynamic variation of the position of the reception focus of a prescribable number of ultrasound transducer elements has a reception channel including a time-delay circuit for the received ultrasound echo signal following every ultrasound transducer element. For switching between different, prescribed time-delay values (T.sub.1, T.sub.2, . . . T.sub.n), the time-delay circuit is connected to a control device. A part of the time-delay circuit is redundantly designed, so that first and a second sub-circuits for forming the time-delayed ultrasound echo signal are present. A dissolve circuit is provided which causes the second sub-circuit to be faded in the reception channel when the first sub-circuit, in a blanked condition, is switched to a different time-delay value (T.sub.1, T.sub.2, . . . T.sub.n), and vice versa, by a control device. Significant time is thus saved when switching between the different focus positions of the ultrasound apparatus. Transmission of switching clicks onto the respectively activated sub-circuit is prevented by the use of isolating amplifiers.

Ultrasound apparatus permitting dynamic variation of the position of the

A method and apparatus for processing ultrasonic echo signals employ intermediate storage and representation of the echo signals in the form of image vectors, such storage and representation proceeding independently of the scanning technique utilized to generate the image vectors, such that switching among various scanning techniques is permitted. The full length of each image vector is written into an image memory in column fashion, the stored vectors being read out as image signals in a format suitable for specific types of representation, such as on a television monitor, the format instructions being contained in a memory or generated by an arithmetic unit. Upon read out from the image memory, the geometric form of the ultrasonic scan is reconstructed in a position and form corresponding to the actual scan, and the ultrasonic echo signals are similarly represented at their true positions.

Method and apparatus for processing ultrasonic echo signals

In medical ultrasonic technology (in particular with phased arrays) it is necessary to delay in time a plurality of received ultrasound signals and subsequently to add them after they are as nearly in phase as possible. The delay times required for this purpose are approximately between 0 and 10 .mu.s. The ultrasound signal is analyzed as to envelope and a sign. The envelope is then delayed either in analog (e.g. with LC delay lines) or digitally (e.g. with shift registers) through a delay means which is adjustable in coarse time steps of e.g. 500 ns. The sign signal corresponding to the sign of the ultrasound signal is delayed via a digital delay section which is adjustable in small time steps of e.g. 50 ns. Phase coherence to other ultrasound signals can be established. Thereafter the delayed sign signal and the delayed envelope signal are multiplied one by the other in a multiplier. Thereafter the output signal is filtered in a low-pass filter. The output from the low-pass filter then represents the delayed form of the ultrasound signal.

Method and apparatus for delaying an ultrasound signal

Ultrasonic signals, for example, are provided with a fast-acting store which, at the same time, allows maximum flexibility in addressing. The signals arriving at the signal inputs of the signal store are apportioned into channel sections, and the channel sections occurring after each other in time may each be read in parallel formation into section addresses of the signal store. The section addresses may be read out again orthogonally following each other in time in such a sequence that, in combination, the original signals are again obtained.

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Nuremberg, Germany

Ulrich Saugeon