Ultrasound transducer subarray system and method

摘要

An ultrasound imaging system and method in which a transducer assembly in a probe housing in which sub-array beamforming and multiplexing operations are performed in the probe housing. The probe housing can be connected to a processor housing in which a second beamforming operation can be performed to generate images for display. The processor housing can be a handheld ultrasound display device for portable use.

主权项

1. A method of medical ultrasound imaging comprising:
actuating a plurality of transducer sub-arrays of a transducer assembly mounted in a handheld probe housing to generate a plurality of scan lines at a plurality of different scan angles for each transmit pulse; beamforming a plurality of detected signals generated by the transducer assembly with a first beamformer device in the probe housing, the first beamformer device having a plurality of sub-array beamformer elements that receive signals from the plurality of transducer sub-arrays, each of the plurality of transducer sub-arrays being connected to one of a plurality of multiplexer elements in the probe housing; performing a second beamforming operation with a second beamformer device in a handheld ultrasound display housing to generate beamformed image data, the second beamformer being in communication with the probe housing to receive beamformed data from the first beamformer device; and processing the beamformed image data with a processing system in the ultrasound display housing to generate ultrasound images for display.