ULTRASONIC IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS USING COMBINATION OF LINEAR SCANNING AND SECTOR SCANNING

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To broaden a visual field by using the combination of a linear scanning and a sector scanning while holding advantages of the linear scanning. SOLUTION: A composite scanning pattern 12 for an ultrasonic image formation includes a linear scanning patten 14 and one or more sector scanning patterns 16 and 18. The sector scanning patterns 16 and 18 form an approximately trapezoidal scanning pattern by adjoining to the linear scanning pattern 14 and along its boundary. The linear scanning pattern 14 can be steered at a desired angleθso as to provide a high quality image. The widths of sector apertures 40 and 42 can be narrowed and the width of the linear scanning pattern 14 can be widened so as to form the image with a shallow depth. The composite scanning pattern 12 provides the broad visual field in the both of the image formation in the shallow part and the image formation in a deep part. COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO