Ultrasonic holography imaging system and method
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsStephan Falter, Dieter Lingenberg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultrasonic holography imaging system and method are provided. The ultrasonic holography imaging system includes an ultrasonic transducer array coupled to an analog processing section. The analog processing section is coupled to a digital processing section. The digital processing section generates digital signals to be converted by the analog processing section into analog signals that are transmitted to individual transceiver elements within the ultrasonic transducer array to cause separate ones of the individual transceiver elements to emit ultrasonic waveforms that are differentiated from each other by one or more parameters, including amplitude, frequency, and phase or modulation thereof.
Claims20
An ultrasonic holography imaging system comprising:
- an ultrasonic transducer array including a plurality of transceiver elements configured to emit a plurality of ultrasonic waveforms toward a physical item, and receive a plurality of return ultrasonic waveforms reflected from the physical item;
- and
- a processor system coupled to said ultrasonic transducer array, said processor system configured to:
- generate a plurality of outgoing analog transceiver driving signals configured to cause said ultrasonic transducer array to emit said plurality of ultrasonic waveforms, wherein at least two of said plurality of ultrasonic waveforms are differentiated from each other through variation of at least one of amplitude, frequency, and phase or a modulation of any one thereof to form an acoustic image;
- receive a plurality of incoming analog waveform signals, generated by said ultrasonic transducer array, said incoming analog waveform signals representative of at least a portion of said plurality of return ultrasonic waveforms;
- and
- construct a virtual image, using said plurality of incoming analog waveform signals, the virtual image corresponding to at least a portion of an internal region of the physical item.
A method for assembling an ultrasonic holography system, said method comprising:
- coupling a plurality of ultrasonic transceiver elements to form an ultrasonic transducer array, the plurality of transceiver elements configured to emit a plurality of ultrasonic waveforms toward a physical item to form an acoustic image therein, and receive a plurality of return ultrasonic waveforms reflected from the physical item;
- and
- coupling a processor system to the ultrasonic transducer array, the processor system configured to:
- generate a plurality of outgoing analog transceiver driving signals configured to cause the ultrasonic transducer array to emit the plurality of ultrasonic waveforms, wherein at least two of the plurality of ultrasonic waveforms are differentiated from each other through variation of at least one of amplitude, frequency, phase, or modulation of any thereof;
- receive a plurality of incoming analog waveform signals, generated by the ultrasonic transducer array, the plurality of incoming analog waveform signals representative of at least a portion of the plurality of return ultrasonic waveforms;
- and
- construct a virtual image, using the plurality of incoming analog waveform signals, the virtual image corresponding to at least a portion of an internal region of the physical item.
A method for imaging a physical item using ultrasonic holographic imaging, said method implemented using a processor system including a processing section coupled to a memory device, said method comprising:
- defining an image structure using data stored in the memory device, the data representing a geometry of the physical item;
- configuring an ultrasonic transducer array, the ultrasonic transducer array comprising a plurality of ultrasonic transceiver elements;
- coupling the ultrasonic transducer array to the processing section and the memory device;
- and
- storing, in the memory device, instructions executable by the processor system to cause the ultrasonic transducer array to emit a plurality of ultrasonic waveforms representative of the defined image structure, wherein at least two of the of ultrasonic waveforms are differentiated from each other through variation of at least one of amplitude, frequency, phase and modulation thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.