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:
Dec. 08, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 15, 1997
Darwin P Adams, Lexington, MA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
An ultrasound imaging system includes an array of ultrasound transducer elements, wherein the transducer array is divided into plural transducer elements arranged in the direction of a scan plane and each transducer element is divided into three or more segments in the direction of an elevation plane. Also included are a transmitter for transmitting ultrasound energy into a region of interest from the array, a receiver for receiving signals generated by the array in response to the ultrasound echoes, a signal processing section including a signal processing circuit, a beam former, and a controller. The signal processing section is operable for effecting system control and for effecting signal processing and image display, and in particular, for allocating the channels with respect to the segments to vary the arrangement of signal processing channels applied to selected segments wherein the allocation is performed according to beam focal length. The system optimizes the channel allocation for improved electronic focusing in the scan plane and the elevation plane.