Ultrasound Imaging
OwnerGregory Clementinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultrasound imaging system for use in producing an image of an object in a region of interest includes: an exciter configured to provide an excitation signal; a transducer coupled to the exciter and configured to produce, in response to the excitation signal, an ultrasound field whose complex frequency content varies with field location; a receiver configured to receive ultrasound signals reflected by the object and to produce indicia of the received reflected ultrasound signals; and a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to cross-correlate the indicia of the received reflected ultrasound signals with indicia of the ultrasound field at pixels in the region of interest to determine image pixel intensities of the region of interest for producing an image.
Claims28
An ultrasound imaging system for use in producing an image of an object in a region of interest, the system comprising:
- an exciter configured to provide an excitation signal;
- a transducer coupled to the exciter and configured to produce, in response to the excitation signal, an ultrasound field whose complex frequency content varies with field location;
- a receiver configured to receive ultrasound signals reflected by the object and to produce indicia of the received reflected ultrasound signals;
- and
- a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to cross-correlate the indicia of the received reflected ultrasound signals with indicia of the ultrasound field at pixels in the region of interest to determine image pixel intensities of the region of interest for producing an image.
The system of 6 wherein the transducer is polarized normal to the radiating surface.
A method of imaging an object in a region of interest using ultrasound, the method comprising:
- producing an ultrasound field such that waveforms at centers of predetermined pixel locations in the region of interest in the absence of the object would be unique;
- receiving ultrasound signals reflected by the object;
- producing indicia of the received reflected ultrasound signals;
- cross-correlating the indicia of the received reflected ultrasound signals with indicia of the waveforms at pixels in the region of interest to determine image pixel intensities of the region of interest for producing an image;
- and
- producing an image of the object using the image pixel intensities.
An ultrasound transducer system comprising an air-backed hexahedral right prism transducer having first and second surfaces that are nonparallel with respect to each other, the transducer being configured to receive an excitation signal and to radiate, in response to the excitation signal, ultrasound waves from the first surface, the transducer being configured to radiate ultrasound waves along a length of the first surface and having frequencies in a range from a first frequency to a second frequency, the second frequency being higher than the first frequency, and wherein the length of the first surface is at least about three times as long as a wavelength of the second frequency.
An ultrasound transducer system comprising a single transducer configured to receive an excitation signal and to radiate, in response to the excitation signal, ultrasound waves along a length of an aperture with the ultrasound waves having frequencies in a range from a first frequency to a second frequency, the second frequency being higher than the first frequency, and wherein the length of the aperture is at least about three times as long as a wavelength of the second frequency.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.