# US 12,616,445 B2 · Portable ultrasound system

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- Number: US 12,616,445 B2
- Document ID: US12616445B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/461,581
- Filed: 2017-11-16
- Published: 2019-12-05
- Granted: 2026-05-05
- Earliest claimed: 2016-11-16
- Assignees: TeraTech Corporation
- Applicants: Teratech Corporation
- Inventors: Alice M. Chiang; Noah Berger
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12616445B2

## CPC

- A61B 8/4427: {Device being portable or laptop-like}
- A61B 8/4405: {Device being mounted on a trolley}
- A61B 8/4433: {involving a docking unit}
- A61B 8/461: {Displaying means of special interest}
- A61B 8/465: {adapted to display user selection data, e.g. icons or menus}
- A61B 8/469: {for selection of a region of interest}
- G06F 3/04886: by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
- A61B 8/12: in body cavities or body tracts, e.g. by using catheters
- A61B 8/488: {involving Doppler signals}
- G06F 3/0481: based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
- G06F 3/04842: Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence)
- H10W 72/884: {Die-attach connectors and bond wires}
- H10W 74/00: Encapsulations, e.g. protective coatings
- H10W 90/732: {between stacked chips}
- H10W 90/736: {between a chip and a stacked lead frame, conducting package substrate or heat sink}
- H10W 90/756: {between a chip and a stacked lead frame, conducting package substrate or heat sink}
- A61B: DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION (usefulness limited to only animals A61D)
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- H10W: GENERIC PACKAGES, INTERCONNECTIONS, CONNECTORS OR OTHER CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS OF DEVICES COVERED BY CLASS H10

## Abstract

Exemplary embodiments provide systems and methods for portable medical ultrasound imaging. Preferred embodiments utilize a hand portable, battery powered system having a display and a user interface operative to control imaging and display operations. A keyboard control panel can be used alone or in combination with touchscreen controls to actuate a graphical user interface. Exemplary embodiments also provide an ultrasound engine circuit board including one or more multi-chip modules, and a portable medical ultrasound imaging system including an ultrasound engine circuit board.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A portable medical ultrasound imaging device comprising:
a transducer probe housing a transducer array; and
a portable tablet housing mounted on a cart, the portable tablet housing having a computer in the portable tablet housing, the computer including a central processing unit performing a scan conversion operation and at least one memory, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to control transmit signals emitted by the transducer array, wherein the portable tablet housing is powered by a battery, and a touchscreen display that displays an ultrasound image, the touchscreen display positioned on the portable tablet housing and including a touch actuated focal zone control and a focal range control;
wherein the touchscreen display displays a user interface enabling a user selection of a preset group of image control settings associated with an anatomical structure from among a plurality of presets for separate anatomical structures, and wherein each of the separate anatomical structures is associated with an imaging protocol performed by a separate machine learning algorithm;
a graphics processor in the portable tablet housing that is connected to the central processing unit wherein the graphics processor is configured to perform more than 1000 giga floating point operations per second to execute a machine learning algorithm based on the user selection using ultrasound image data in response to a touch actuated input on the touchscreen display, the machine learning algorithm to generating computed real time ultrasound images, wherein the generated computed real time ultrasound images are displayed on the touchscreen display; and
an ultrasound beamformer processing circuit that receives image data from the transducer array, the ultrasound beamformer processing circuit being communicably connected to the computer.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the graphics processor is connected to a core memory in the housing.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the transducer array comprises a bi plane transducer array.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the probe further comprises a laparoscopic imaging device.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 further comprising a camera mounted with the probe wherein images generated by the camera are processed by the graphics processor.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the graphics processor is configured to operate a neural network to perform a machine learning operation.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the computer receives an input from the touchscreen display, the input being received at the first location inside a region of a virtual window in an ultrasound image display area on the touchscreen display.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The device of claim 7 wherein the input corresponds to a press gesture against the touch screen display.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the transducer array comprises a plurality of transducer arrays in one or more transducer probe housings, at least one transducer array having a least 64 transducer elements, each operated by a probe beamformer processing circuit.

### Claim 10 (depends on 7)

The device of claim 7 wherein the computer fixes a first cursor at the first location inside the region of the virtual window in response to a second input from the touch screen display.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The device of claim 10 wherein the computer performs at least one measurement on the ultrasound image based at least in part on the first cursor at the first location.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the computer receives an input from a keyboard control panel or virtual control panel.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the computer is connected to a shared memory.

### Claim 14 (depends on 10)

The device of claim 10 wherein the computer displays a second cursor at a second location inside the region of the virtual window in response to a third input from the touch screen display.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The device of claim 14 wherein the computer processes at least one measurement with the ultrasound image based at least in part on the respective locations of the first and second cursors inside the region of the virtual window.

### Claim 16 (depends on 14)

The device of claim 14 wherein the computer receives a fourth further input from the touchscreen display, the fourth further input being received inside the region of the virtual window.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The device of claim 16 wherein the fourth further input corresponds to a press and drag gesture against the touch screen display.

### Claim 18 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 further comprising a bus connecting the graphics processor to the central processing unit (CPU).

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The device of claim 18 further comprising a neural network that processes image data.

### Claim 20 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the transducer array is connected to the housing with a transducer connector.

### Claim 21 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the housing has a volume of less than 2500 cubic centimeters.

### Claim 22 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1 wherein the portable tablet housing mounts on a cart such that a plurality of transducers can be communicatively connected to the portable tablet housing.

### Claim 23 (depends on 22)

The device of claim 22 wherein a multiplexor on the cart electrically connects to the portable tablet housing to connect to a plurality of transducer arrays.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

The device of claim 23 wherein the portable tablet housing is detachable from the cart and mounted to a stand.

### Claim 25 (depends on 23)

The device of claim 23 wherein the multiplexor can be switched using a touch gesture.

### Claim 26

A method of operating a cart mounted medical ultrasound imaging device, the medical ultrasound imaging device comprising a transducer probe, a portable tablet housing having a computer system including a central processing unit in the portable tablet housing, the computer including at least one processor and at least one memory, a battery, a touchscreen display for displaying an ultrasound image, an ultrasound beamformer processing circuit disposed in the portable tablet housing, and a graphics processing unit in the portable tablet housing communicably coupled to the central processing unit, the graphics processing unit configured to perform more than 1000 giga floating point operations per second, the method comprising the steps of:
displaying on the touchscreen display a user interface enabling a user selection of a preset group of image control settings associated with an anatomical structure from among a plurality of presets for separate anatomical structures, and wherein each of the separate anatomical structures is associated with an imaging protocol performed by a separate machine learning algorithm;
receiving, at the computer, an input from the touchscreen display;
actuating a transmission of ultrasound pulses with a transducer array in the transducer probe wherein a field programmable gate array (FPGA) controls said transmission;
performing a beamforming operation to generate ultrasound image data; and
performing a machine learning computational process to adjust ultrasound image data with a neural network using the graphics processing unit in response to a further touchscreen actuated input from the touchscreen display to display computed real time ultrasound images.

### Claim 27 (depends on 26)

The method of claim 26 further comprising receiving, at the computer, a second input from the touch screen display.

### Claim 28 (depends on 27)

The method of claim 27 wherein the second input corresponds to a double tap gesture against the touch screen display.

### Claim 29 (depends on 27)

The method of claim 27 further comprising in response to the second input from the touch screen display, displaying a first cursor inside a region of a virtual window displaying a magnified image.

### Claim 30 (depends on 29)

The method of claim 29 further comprising performing, by the computer, at least one measurement on the ultrasound image based at least in part on the first cursor at the first location.

### Claim 31 (depends on 30)

The method of claim 30 further comprising in response to a third further input from the touch screen display, displaying a second cursor at a second location inside the region of the virtual window.

### Claim 32 (depends on 31)

The method of claim 31 further comprising performing, by the computer, at least one measurement on the ultrasound image based at least in part on the respective locations of the first and second cursors inside the region of the virtual window.

### Claim 33 (depends on 31)

The method of claim 31 further comprising receiving, at the computer, a fourth further input from the touchscreen display, the fourth further input being received inside the region of the virtual window.

### Claim 34 (depends on 33)

The method of claim 33 wherein the fourth further input corresponds to a press and drag gesture against the touch screen display.

### Claim 35 (depends on 33)

The method of claim 33 further comprising in response to the fourth further input from the touch screen display, providing a connecting line on the touch screen display extending from the first cursor across at least a portion of the ultrasound image to a second location inside the region of the virtual window.

### Claim 36 (depends on 26)

The method of claim 26 wherein the transducer probe includes an electromagnetic (EM) sensor, the portable housing has a tablet form factor and a front panel, the computer including a touch screen display for displaying an ultrasound image, the touch screen display being disposed on the front panel, the touch screen display and the ultrasound beamformer processing circuit being communicably coupled to the computer, the method further comprising the steps of:
receiving ultrasound image data and camera image data of a region of interest.