ULTRASOUND TRANSDUCER PROBE WITH MICROBEAMFORMER FOR MULTILINE IMAGING

摘要

An array transducer probe has transducer elements arranged in adjacent patches (62, 64, 66) of groups of transducer elements. A microbeamformer in the probe is coupled to the elements of the array to transmit ultrasound beams and delay echo signals received by the transducer elements. In a standard configuration the elements of each patch (62, 64, 66) are coupled to the summing node (72, 74, 76) of that patch. The elements of each patch may also be coupled to the summing nodes of one or more adjacent patches. For multiline (4′, 6′) reception some of the elements of the active aperture are coupled to the summing node of one patch, and other elements of the active aperture are coupled to the summing node of another patch. This coupling provides at least two different patch signals to channels (82, 84) of a system beamformer for multiline processing.

主权项

1. An ultrasonic transducer probe and system comprising:
an array of transducer elements configured as a plurality of adjacent patches of transducer elements; a microbeamformer coupled to the transducer elements of the matrix array comprising:
a plurality of controllable delays coupled to elements of the array to produce delayed echo signals;a plurality of controllable switches coupled to direct delayed echo signals to a summing node of a given patch, or to a summing node of a patch adjacent to the given patch; anda microbeamformer output coupled from each summing node; and a system beamformer having a plurality of channels, each channel being coupled to receive a partial beamsum signal from a microbeamformer output.