Patent · US Expired

Ultrasound imaging system using line splicing and parallel receive beam formation

US5462057A · kind A · utility

75Cited by
21References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 9, 1994
Grant dateOct 31, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 9, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG10K11/341
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

In a phased array ultrasound imaging system, a high quality image is obtained by a combination of line splicing and parallel receive beamforming. Two transmit pulses, one focused in the near field and one focused in the far field, are transmitted sequentially at each steering angle. The transmitted ultrasound energy is preferably focused both in azimuth and in elevation. Ultrasound echos are simultaneously received along two receive scan lines spaced angularly on opposite sides of each transmit scan line. Signals received in response to the near field and far field transmit pulses are spliced together to provide signals that represent a high quality image throughout the region of interest. Image artifacts are reduced by blending the received signals near the splice between the near field and the far field, by dynamically steering the receive scan lines to reduce the effect of line warping, and by weighted averaging of adjacent scan lines.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.