Patent · US Expired

Ultrasonic visualization method and apparatus

US6254542A · kind A · utility

12Cited by
29References
3Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 15, 1999
Grant dateJul 3, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 15, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01S7/52026
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An ultrasound system includes a transducer array having a plurality of transducer elements for transmitting ultrasound pulses and for receiving-echo pulses in response thereto, a circuit for energizing each transducer element, or batches of elements of the array, in turn, to generate an ultrasound pulse, and for receiving echo signals from at least two transducer elements resulting from transmission of an ultrasound pulse from another transducer element so that data used to create an image of the echo signals comes from the two transducer elements, a control device for controlling the order in which the transducers are energized and the order in which the transducers receive an echo pulse so as to carry out the energization and reception sequentially, a circuit for acquiring sequentially the data in analog form for a whole aperture, for acquiring sequentially the data for successive apertures and for processing the data for beam-formation for each aperture in correspondence with an analog echo pulse received by each transducer such that appropriate data sets once acquired are used for beam-formation of more than one aperture, the circuit for acquiring and processing including a hig…

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