Object information acquiring apparatus

摘要

There is used an object information acquiring apparatus including a probe for electrically scanning an object in first direction and mechanically scanning in second direction intersecting with the first direction, a first delay-and-sum unit for operating a delay-and-sum on a received signal, a memory for storing a first delay-and-sum signal for each plane in the second direction, a selecting unit for selecting signals corresponding to M sectional planes from among the stored signals, a second delay-and-sum unit for operating a delay-and-sum on the selected signals in the second direction, and a unit for acquiring image in the object from the second delay-and-sum signal, the second delay-and-sum unit switching, according to the mechanical scanning, a first case in which M signals are fixed and a delay pattern is varied and a second case in which a set of the M signals is varied and the delay pattern is fixed.

主权项

1. An object information acquiring apparatus comprising:
a probe which is configured to carry out electronic scanning in a first direction in which a plurality of elements each transmitting an ultrasound wave to an object and outputting a receiving signal upon receipt of the reflected ultrasound wave are arranged; a scanning unit which is configured to carry out mechanical scanning of the probe in a second direction intersecting with the first direction over a parallel plane with a receiving surface of each of the elements; a first delay-and-sum unit which is configured to carry out a delay-and-sum in the first direction by using the receiving signal, thereby generating a first delay-and-sum signal; a memory unit which is configured to store the first delay-and-sum signal in each position in the second direction for each sectional plane; a second delay-and-sum unit which is configured to carry out a delay-and-sum in the second direction by using a predetermined number of first delay-and-sum signals corresponding to M sectional planes (where M is a predetermined integer equal to two or more) from among the first delay-and-sum signals stored in the memory unit, thereby generating a second delay-and-sum signal, the second delay-and-sum signal output from the second delay-and-sum unit being used to acquire information in the object as image data, wherein the second delay-and-sum unit: (a) is configured to perform the delay-and-sum in a first manner, in which a set of the M sectional planes is fixed and the first delay-and-sum signals relating to the fixed M sectional planes are added while a delay pattern is varied, so as to generate the second delay-and-sum signal, and (b) is configured to perform the delay-and-sum in a second manner, in which the set of the M sectional planes is varied and the first delay-and-sum signals relating to the M sectional planes are added while the delay pattern is fixed, so as to generate the second delay-and-sum signal.