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:
Apr. 14, 2009
Filed:
Feb. 26, 2004
John C. Lazenby, Fall City, WA (US);
David A. Petersen, Fall City, WA (US);
John C. Lazenby, Fall City, WA (US);
David A. Petersen, Fall City, WA (US);
Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Malvern, PA (US);
Abstract
Different subarray combinations are provided for ultrasound imaging. A basic building block component supports different subarray sizes. Rather than providing a switching network for all possible combinations, a transducer array is divided into super arrays. Each super array is associated with a plurality of possible subarrays. For example, a 3×12 block of elements is divisible into four 3×3 or three 3×4 subarrays. As another example, a 4×12 block of elements is divisible into four 4×3 and three 4×4 subarrays. For each super array, the block of elements is divided into slices, such as three slices along one dimension for 3×12 block or four slices along that dimension for the 4×12 block. The number of elements along one division in each slice represents a least common multiple of the varying extent of the subarray sizes. Twelve is the least common multiple of three and four. By using small building blocks, the slice inputs are combined into partial subarrays. By summing combined outputs from different slices or other subdivisions of the super array, subarray signals are provided regardless of a selected possible subarray size.