METHODS AND APPARATUSES OF APERTURE CONTROL AND MULTIPLEXING WITH ADJUSTABLE FLUID LENSES

摘要

An acoustic imaging system (1300) includes: an acoustic transducer (40); a plurality of variably-refracting acoustic lens elements (10) coupled to the acoustic transducer, a controller (1326) adapted to generate a plurality of control signals for electrodes (250, 260) of the variably-refracting acoustic lens elements (10); a multiplexer (1322) adapted to multiplex the control signals for the electrodes of the variably-refracting acoustic lens elements (10) to produce a multiplexed control signal; a decoder (1312) adapted to demultiplex the multiplexed control signal to produce the plurality of control signals for the electrodes (250, 260) of the variably-refracting acoustic lens elements (10); and a cable (1330) adapted to provide the multiplexed control signal from the multiplexer (1322) to the decoder (1312). The variably-refracting acoustic lens elements (10) are adapted, in response to control signals applied thereto, to adjust an effective aperture of the acoustic transducer (40) to have a selected aperture size.