Systems and methods for fast acoustic steering via tilting electromechanical reflectors
OwnerPengfei Song, Zhijie Dong +3inventors
InventorsPengfei Song, Zhijie Dong, Matthew R. Lowerison, Jun Zou, Shuangliang Li
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Abstract
High volume-rate three-dimensional (“3D”) ultrasound imaging using fast acoustic steering via tilting electromechanical reflectors is described. Ultrasound beams are directed towards one or more tilting reflectors, which are scanned through a range of tilt angles in order to image a 3D field-of-view with a high volume rate.
Claims32
An acoustic steering device, comprising:
- a housing;
- a first reflector arranged within the housing;
- a second reflector arranged within the housing and relative to the first reflector such that ultrasound beams incident upon the first reflector are reflected onto the second reflector whereupon the ultrasound beams are reflected to exit the housing;
- and
- wherein at least one of the first reflector and the second reflector are tiltable and configured to tilt over a range of tilt angles responsive to a driving signal.
A three-dimensional ultrasound imaging system, comprising:
- an ultrasound transducer configured to receive a driver signal from an ultrasound system and generate an ultrasound beam in response thereto;
- a housing;
- a tilting reflector arranged within the housing;
- a redirecting reflector arranged within the housing;
- a connector configured to couple the ultrasound transducer to the housing;
- and
- wherein the tilting reflector is configured to tilt through a range of tilt angles in order to steer ultrasound beams incident upon the tilting reflector towards the redirecting reflector where the ultrasound beams are reflected by the redirector reflector to exit the housing.
A method for generating a three-dimensional image using an ultrasound system and an acoustic steering device coupled to the ultrasound system, the method comprising:
- (a) transmitting ultrasound beams to a volume-of-interest using the ultrasound system while controlling the acoustic steering device to scan the ultrasound beams over a range of tilt angles;
- (b) acquiring ultrasound data with the ultrasound system in response to the ultrasound beams transmitted to the volume-of-interest;
- (c) reconstructing an image of the volume-of-interest using the computer system, wherein reconstructing the image includes associating beam positions of the ultrasound beams with tilting angles in the range of tilt angles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.