Ultrasound imaging apparatus

摘要

An ultrasound imaging apparatus including a processing unit configured to produce an ultrasound image of the target region by applying position/orientation data representative of the position and/or orientation of an ultrasound transducer on the first side of a surface during each collection cycle to echo data representative of reflected ultrasound energy received by the ultrasound transducer during each collection cycle so as to coherently focus the echo data at a plurality of points distributed within the target region.

主权项

1. An ultrasound imaging apparatus including:
a single ultrasound transducer that has a fixed focal length, the single ultrasound transducer being configured to perform, in each of a plurality of positions and/or orientations on a first side of a surface, a respective collection cycle in which the ultrasound transducer emits ultrasound energy into and receives reflected ultrasound energy from a target region on a second side of the surface that is opposite to the first side; a processing unit configured to acquire echo data representative of reflected ultrasound energy received by the single ultrasound transducer during each collection cycle and position/orientation data representative of the position and/or orientation of the ultrasound transducer on the first side of the surface during each collection cycle; wherein the processing unit is configured to produce an ultrasound image of the target region by applying the position/orientation data to the echo data so as to coherently focus the echo data at a plurality of points distributed within the target region, and wherein the processing unit coherently focuses the echo data at the plurality of points distributed within the target region by, for each respective point of the plurality of points distributed in the target region: (i) calculating which transducer positions/orientations to include in a summation corresponding to the respective point, (ii) applying a time delay and/or phase shift to echo data corresponding to each transducer position/orientation to be included in the summation, and (iii) summing the time delayed and/or phase shifted echo data.