Method, apparatus and applications for combining transmit wave functions to obtain synthetic waveform in ultrasonic imaging system
US5891038A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 30, 1996 |
| Grant date | Apr 6, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 30, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S15/8952
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A signal processing technique for improving the axial resolution and/or the sensitivity of an ultrasonic imaging system. This technique also improves the lateral resolution and the depth of field. The technique is based on combining two or more transmit wave functions in an optimal manner to achieve a synthetic waveform which has greater bandwidth and/or energy than the individual wave functions. This scheme operates on the imaging data before the data reaches the envelope detector, while the phase information is still maintained within the signal. Using a synthetic transmit wave design approach, the effective emitted pressure waveform would have a bandwidth which would be wider than the transducer bandwidth with high sensitivity. The synthetic transmit waveform design scheme consists of firing two or more relatively long transmit waveforms for each single A-line in a given focal zone. The frequency spectrum for each of these transmit pulses is centered at a slightly different frequency. The received signals from all of these transmit waveforms are added, while maintaining their phase information, to produce a synthetic waveform having an wider bandwidth than that of an impulse exc…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.