Ultrasonic Synthetic Transmit Focusing With Motion Compensation
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorsMichael BURCHER, Jean-Luc ROBERT
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces an image with an extended focal range by transmitting a plurality of beams spaced along an array for multiline reception. The receive multilines of a plurality of transmit beams are spatially aligned and are combined with phase adjustment between the respective receive multilines to prevent undesired phase cancellation. The combined multilines produce the effect of an extended transmit focus so that an image produced using the combined multilines exhibits an extended focal range. To prevent motion artifacts the multiline order is adjustable as a function of image motion.
Claims20
A method for imaging an image field, comprising:
- transmitting a plurality of laterally spaced transmit beams from a probe including an array of transducer elements, each transmit beam encompassing a plurality of laterally spaced line positions;
- producing, using a multiline receive beamformer, a plurality of receive lines of the image field at the line positions in response to one transmit beam;
- using a multiline combining circuit, responsive to a plurality of r.f. receive line signals which relate to a common line position produced by the multiline receive beamformer in response to a plurality of transmit beams, to delay r.f. receive line signals of a receive line with a phase characteristic which varies as a function of depth and to combine the plurality of r.f. receive line signals to produce transmit refocused image data;
- detecting a presence of motion in the image field;
- and
- displaying an image utilizing the transmit refocused image data,
- wherein a number of the plurality of r.f. receive line signals combined by the multiline combining circuit is a function of the presence of motion.
A method for imaging an image field, comprising:
- transmitting a plurality of laterally spaced transmit beams from a probe including an array of transducer elements, each transmit beam encompassing a plurality of laterally spaced line positions;
- producing, using a multiline receive beamformer, a plurality of receive lines of the image field at the line positions in response to one transmit beam;
- using a multiline combining circuit, responsive to a plurality of r.f. receive line signals which relate to a common line position produced by the multiline receive beamformer in response to a plurality of transmit beams, to delay r.f. receive line signals of a receive line with a phase characteristic which varies as a function of depth and to combine the plurality of r.f. receive line signals to produce transmit refocused image data;
- detecting a presence of motion in the image field;
- and
- displaying an image utilizing the transmit refocused image data,
- wherein the beams transmitted by the transmit beamformer are a function of the presence of motion.
A method for imaging an image field, comprising:
- transmitting a plurality of laterally spaced transmit beams from a probe including an array of transducer elements, each transmit beam encompassing a plurality of laterally spaced line positions;
- producing, using a multiline receive beamformer, a plurality of receive lines of the image field at the line positions in response to one transmit beam;
- using a multiline combining circuit, responsive to a plurality of r.f. receive line signals which relate to a common line position produced by the multiline receive beamformer in response to a plurality of transmit beams, to delay r.f. receive line signals of a receive line with a phase characteristic which varies as a function of depth and to combine the plurality of r.f. receive line signals to produce transmit refocused image data;
- detecting a presence of motion in the image field;
- and
- displaying an image utilizing the transmit refocused image data,
- wherein a spacing of the line positions used by the multiline receive beamformer is a function of the presence of motion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.