Multiline receive beamformers and related systems and methods
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorsSteven Russell FREEMAN, Michael Thomas MCMILLAN
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Abstract
Microbeamformers coupled to groups of array elements which partially beamform groups of elements for the formation of multiple receive lines are provided. In the microbeamformers, a delay line can be configured to output multiple signal streams that can be delayed by different amounts to support multiline receive in a microbeamformer. A read process during beamforming is not destructive, thereby allowing multiline receive beams to be generated from a single delay line.
Claims18
A receive beamformer comprising a delay element including analog random access memory, wherein the delay element comprises:
- an input line configured to receive an input analog electrical signal generated from an acoustic signal received by an array of transducer elements;
- a write shift register configured to operate a plurality of write switches connected to the input line;
- a plurality of capacitive elements configured to store a charge that can be read from a plurality of outputs of each capacitive element at different delay times;
- a plurality of read shift registers configured to operate a plurality of read switches connected to the plurality of outputs of each capacitive element such that the charge in each capacitive element is read at the different delay times from different outputs of each capacitive element;
- and
- a plurality of summing elements, each summer configured to sum output signals from one of the plurality of outputs of each one of the capacitive elements.
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A method of multiline receive beamforming, the method comprising:
- receiving, on an input line, an input analog electrical signal generated from an acoustic signal received by an array of transducer elements;
- operating by a write shift register a plurality of write switches connected to the input line;
- storing a charge on a plurality of capacitive elements, each having a plurality of outputs;
- operating by a plurality of read shift registers a plurality of read switches connected to the plurality of outputs of each capacitive elements such that the charge in each capacitive element is read at the different delay times from different outputs of each capacitive element;
- and
- summing output signals from each of the outputs of the capacitive elements on a plurality of summing elements, wherein each summing element summing output signals from one of the plurality of outputs of each capacitive element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.