Two-Dimensional Ultrasound Imaging Transducer Array with a Non-Rectangular Active Sensing Region

Abstract

An ultrasound imaging system (102) includes a transducer array (108) with a two-dimensional array of rows (110) of transducer elements (114). The transducer elements of each row extend along a long axis (116). The rows are parallel to each other. The transducer array includes a non-rectangular set of active transducer elements. The ultrasound imaging system further includes transmit circuitry (118) that actuates the transducer elements to transmit an ultrasound signal. The ultrasound imaging system further includes receive circuitry (120) that receives echoes produced in response to an interaction between the ultrasound signal and a structure and received by the transducer elements. The ultrasound imaging system further includes a beamformer that processes the echoes and generates one or more scan lines indicative of the structure.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.