Transmit/receive isolation for an ultrasound system

摘要

A transmit/receive isolation for an ultrasound system to block a high voltage transmit signal from being propagated to a receiving unit during a transmission period of an ultrasound signal is disclosed. An ultrasound system includes a switching unit coupled to a transmitting unit, a ultrasound probe and a receiving unit. The switching unit includes diode bridges and a switching module having pairs of switches connected to the respective diode bridges, wherein each pair of switches is configured to perform switching between a plus voltage and a minus voltage to forward-bias a corresponding diode bridge to allow a respective receive signal to be propagated to the receiving unit in a first state and to reverse-bias the corresponding diode bridge to block a respective transmit signal to be propagated to the receiving unit in a second state.

主权项

1. An ultrasound system, comprising:
a transmitting unit configured to form a transmit signal; an ultrasound probe comprising a plurality of transducer elements and configured to receive the transmit signal from the transmitting unit, convert the transmit signal into an ultrasound signal, transmit the ultrasound signal to a target object, receive a respective echo signal from the target object in each of the plurality of transducer elements, and form a respective receive signal based on the respective echo signal in each of the plurality of transducer elements; a receiving unit comprising a plurality of inputs each associated with a respective transducer element of the plurality of transducer elements and each configured to receive the respective receive signal from the respective transducer element of the plurality of transducer elements of the ultrasound probe; a plurality of diode bridges each coupled to a respective output of the transmitting unit and a respective transducer element of the ultrasound probe at one end of the diode bridge and coupled to a respective input of the plurality of inputs of the receiving unit at another end of the diode bridge and configured to operate in a first state in which a signal from the one end is blocked from being propagated to the other end or in a second state in which the signal from the one end is allowed to be propagated to the other end; and a control unit configured to:
determine whether the ultrasound probe is in a transmission period in which the ultrasound signal is transmitted from the ultrasound probe to the target object or in a receiving period in which the echo signal is received by the ultrasound probe from the target object;control the plurality of diode bridges to be operated in the first state to block the transmit signal from the transmitting unit from being propagated to the receiving unit when the ultrasound probe is determined to be in the transmission period; andcontrol the plurality of diode bridges to be operated in the second state to allow the receive signal from the probe to be propagated to the receiving unit when the ultrasound probe is determined to be in the receiving period, wherein the control unit controls the diode bridges of the plurality of diode bridges to be individually switchable, and wherein the control unit comprises, for each respective diode bridge, first and second switches configured to perform switching between a plus voltage and a minus voltage, wherein the first switch is connected to one terminal of the respective diode bridge through a first diode and the second switch is connected to another terminal of the respective diode bridge through a second diode.