Method and apparatus for ultrasonic beamforming using golay-coded excitation
US6146328A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 23, 1999 |
| Grant date | Nov 14, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 23, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S15/8959
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A method and apparatus for improving the SNR in medical ultrasound imaging utilize Golay-coded excitation of the transducer array. A Golay pair is a pair of binary (+1,-1) sequences with the property that the sum of the autocorrelations of the two sequences is a Kronecker delta function. This translates into two important advantages over codes in general: (1) Golay codes have no range sidelobes, and (2) Golay codes can be transmitted using only a bipolar pulser versus a more expensive digital-to-analog converter. Degradation of the Golay code is avoided by employing multiple focal zones, where the Golay code is used only in the deepest focal zones in order to minimize dynamic focusing effects, and by employing two consecutive transmits on each beam to minimize tissue motion between the two code sequences.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.