The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 11, 1997
Filed:
May. 02, 1995
J Nelson Wright, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Christopher R Cole, Cupertino, CA (US);
Albert Gee, Los Altos, CA (US);
Acuson Corporation, Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention includes a fully programmable plurality of multi-channel receivers, each receiver having a digital multi-channel receive processor and a local processor control. Each receive processor includes a first decimator, time delay memory, second decimator, and complex multiplier. The receive beamformer is a computationally efficient system which is programmable to allow processing mode trade-offs among receive frequency, receive spatial range resolution, and number of simultaneous beams received. Each local control receives focusing data from a central control computer and provides final calculation of per-channel dynamic focus delay, phase, apodization, and calibration values for each receiver signal sample. Further, this invention includes a baseband multi-beam processor which has a phase aligner and a baseband filter for making post-beamformation coherent phase adjustments and signal shaping, respectively. The phase aligner maintains scan-line-to-scan-line coherency, such as would be required for coherent image formation. Accordingly, the present system can operate under multiple imaging formats, using a variety of transducers and a variety of modes such as B-mode, M-mode, and color Doppler flow mode.