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US 12,171,621 B2Granted
Calibration of multiple aperture ultrasound probes
AssigneeMaui Imaging, Inc.
InventorsArtem Belevich, Josef R. Call, Bruce R. Ritzi, Nathan W. Osborn
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Abstract
The quality of ping-based ultrasound imaging is dependent on the accuracy of information describing the precise acoustic position of transmitting and receiving transducer elements. Improving the quality of transducer element position data can substantially improve the quality of ping-based ultrasound images, particularly those obtained using a multiple aperture ultrasound imaging probe, i.e., a probe with a total aperture greater than any anticipated maximum coherent aperture width. Various systems and methods for calibrating element position data for a probe are described.
Claims19
An ultrasound probe calibration system, comprising:
- an ultrasound probe having a plurality of transmit transducer elements and a plurality of receive transducer elements;
- a phantom having a pattern of reflectors;
- a first memory device containing reference data describing the pattern of reflectors of the phantom;
- a second memory device containing transducer element position data describing a position of each transmit transducer element and each receive transducer element relative to a common coordinate system;
- and
- an imaging control system containing calibration program code configured to direct the system to:
- insonify the phantom with a single spherical wavefront from a first transmit transducer element of the plurality of transmit transducer elements, receive echo data from the single spherical wavefront with two or more of the receive transducer elements, and store echo data in a third memory device,
- form a first plurality of complete images of the pattern of reflectors with echo data received by each of the two or more receive transducer elements and transducer element position data,
- form a first combined image of the pattern of reflectors by combining the first plurality of complete images,
- determine measurement data describing a position of the pattern of reflectors as indicated by the first combined image,
- quantify an error between the measurement data and the reference data, and
- iteratively optimize the transducer element position data based on the quantified error;
- wherein the imaging control system is configured to iteratively optimize the phantom by:
- adjusting the transducer element position data;
- forming a second plurality of complete images of the pattern of reflectors by re-beamforming the stored echo data using the adjusted transducer element position data;
- forming a second combined image of the pattern of reflectors by combining the second plurality of complete images;
- quantifying a second error based on the second combined image;
- and
- evaluating the second error to determine whether the adjusted transducer element position data improves the image.
16 more elements
An ultrasound probe calibration system, comprising:
- an ultrasound probe having a plurality of transmit transducer elements and a plurality of receive transducer elements;
- a phantom having a pattern of reflectors;
- a first memory device containing reference data describing the pattern of reflectors of the phantom;
- a second memory device containing transducer element position data describing a position of each transmit transducer element and each receive transducer element relative to a common coordinate system;
- and
- an imaging control system containing calibration program code configured to direct the system to:
- insonify the phantom with the transmit transducer elements, receive echo data with the receive transducer elements, and store echo data in a third memory device,
- form a first image of the pattern of reflectors by beamforming the stored echo data using the transducer element position data,
- determine measurement data describing a position of the pattern of reflectors as indicated by the first image,
- quantify an error between the measurement data and the reference data, and
- iteratively optimize the transducer element position data based on the quantified error;
- wherein the imaging control system is configured to iteratively optimize the phantom by:
- adjusting the transducer element position data;
- forming a second image of the pattern of reflectors by re-beamforming the stored echo data using the adjusted transducer element position data;
- quantifying a second error based on the second image;
- and
- evaluating the second error to determine whether the adjusted transducer element position data improves the image.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.