US 12,535,568 B2Granted

Data transfer on ultrasound probe signal wires

AssigneeGE Precision Healthcare LLC

InventorsHarald Weichenberger, Reinhold Brüstle

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Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for increasing a data transfer rate and an amount of digital data that may be transmitted to a probe of an ultrasound system, including beam setup data used by modern electronic four-dimensional (e4D) probes to generate a transmit signal. Transmit/receive channels of a cable coupling the probe to the console may be used to send the digital data when not in use. In particular, the digital data may be transmitted during a window of time at the end of a receive mode, after a receive signal has been received and prior to initiating a transmit signal of a subsequent transmit/receive cycle. In some embodiments, a use of the transmit/receive channels for different types of data may be controlled using a switch. In other embodiments, a pulser of the ultrasound system may be advantageously used to encode and transmit the digital data.

Claims15

Dependent claims

An ultrasound system, comprising:

a console including a pulser and a controller;
an ultrasound probe coupled to the console via a cable, the cable including a set of transmit/receive channel wires configured to transmit a transmit signal from the pulser to the ultrasound probe during a transmit mode of the ultrasound system, and to transmit a receive signal from the ultrasound probe to the console during a receive mode of the ultrasound system;
and
a non-transitory memory storing instructions that when executed, cause the controller to transmit digital data between the console and the ultrasound probe via the set of transmit/receive channel wires at a time when neither the transmit signal nor the receive signal is being transmitted;
wherein the digital data includes at least one of:
instructions for configuring a multiplexer of the ultrasound probe;
sensor data of the ultrasound probe;
and
beam setup data comprising instructions for generating the transmit signal at the ultrasound probe;
and
wherein the digital data is transmitted to the ultrasound probe via a binary signal generated by the pulser, the binary signal transmitting the digital data by transmitting a low voltage pulse over a predefined time increment to represent a one, and not transmitting the low voltage pulse over the predefined time increment to represent a zero.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/536,055Filed 11 Dec 2023
Published: US 2025/0189644 A112 Jun 2025
Granted: 27 Jan 2026
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

G01S 7/5208
Constructional features: with integration of processing functions inside probe or scanhead
G01S 7/5202
Details of transmitters: for pulse systems
G01S 7/52028
Extracting wanted echo signals: using digital techniques
G01S 15/8993
Short-range imaging systems; Acoustic microscope systems using pulse-echo techniques: three dimensional imaging systems