Apparatus and system for real-time synthetic focus ultrasonic imaging
US6719693B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 28, 2003 |
| Grant date | Apr 13, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 28, 2023 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S7/52025
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An apparatus for use in an ultrasonic imaging system adapted for generating synthetic focus images in real-time. The apparatus employs an integrated circuit architecture which is scalable and can be employed to construct real-time synthetic focus ultrasonic imaging systems having a large number of transducer array elements. The apparatus utilizes one field programmable gate array per image channel for data storage and sub-image generation. Each field programmable gate array includes on-chip block memories to store digitized ultrasonic signal return echo data and at least one block memory used to store data associated with each ultrasonic transmitter-receiver array pair. Logic inside the field programmable gate array calculates memory addresses during image generation to generate a time-of-flight surface and to form sub-images.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.