Ultrasound autofocusing for short-pulse procedures
AssigneeInsightec, Ltd.
InventorYoav Levy
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an ultrasound system, echo focusing is performed to align ultrasound pulse peaks, establishing the phase delay required for each ultrasound transducer element, and the temporal displacements among pulses are determined using, for example, time-of-flight (ToF) measurements. The combined approach aligns the phases and the envelopes of pulses delivered by the active transducer elements that contribute energy during treatment. Moreover, it permits long pulses to be used for phase alignment in the preparatory stage and perfectly aligned short pulses in the sonication stage.
Claims20
A system for focusing an ultrasound transducer, the system comprising:
- an ultrasound transducer comprising a plurality of transducer elements for providing a series of sonications to at least one target region;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- obtain, for each of at least two transducer elements, an acoustic propagation time characterized by an amount of time it takes for an acoustic pulse to propagate from a respective transducer element to a target region;
- calculate acoustic propagation time differences based on differences between the acoustic propagation times corresponding to the at least two transducer elements with respect to the target region;
- cause the plurality of transducer elements to transmit test acoustic pulses to an acoustic reflector located at or proximate to the target region;
- calculate phase delays for the plurality of transducer elements based on the test acoustic pulses;
- and
- sonicate the target region by driving the plurality of transducer elements to transmit sonicating acoustic pulses using (i) the acoustic propagation time differences to offset emission timing among the plurality of transducer elements and (ii) the phase delays to phase-shift the sonicating acoustic pulses of the plurality of transducer elements relative to one another.
A method of focusing an ultrasound transducer comprising a plurality of transducer elements for providing a series of sonications to at least one target region, the method comprising the steps of:
- obtaining, for each of at least two transducer elements, an acoustic propagation time characterized by an amount of time it takes for an acoustic pulse to propagate from a respective transducer element to a target region;
- calculating acoustic propagation time differences based on differences between the acoustic propagation times corresponding to the at least two transducer elements with respect to the target region;
- causing the plurality of transducer elements to transmit test acoustic pulses to an acoustic reflector located at or proximate to the target region;
- calculating phase delays for the plurality of transducer elements based on the test acoustic pulses;
- and
- sonicate the target region by driving the plurality of transducer elements to transmit sonicating acoustic pulses using (i) the acoustic propagation time differences to offset emission timing among the plurality of transducer elements and (ii) the phase delays to phase-shift the sonicating acoustic pulses of the plurality of transducer elements relative to one another.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.