| 摘要 |
<p>An ultrasound beam former (100) that processes the signals of an array transducer includes a plurality of processing channels (102, 104), one for each element of the active transducer array. Each channel includes a digitizing element (108) for converting the received signal into digital samples, and a delay element (110) for delaying the digitized signal. The delays are chosen so that when the signals from the individual channels are combined, a beam forms in a particular direction. The invention implements sub-sampling period delays in the individual channels with low complexity digital filters having superior delay characteristics with respect to frequency, but having undesirable attenuation characteristics with respect to frequency. The invention corrects for the undesirable attenuation characteristics via a single digital filter after the signals from the individual channels have been combined.</p> |
