Time-shared transmission and continuous recording of ultrasound data for enhanced frame rates

A system for acquiring and processing ultrasound radio-frequency data using a time-shared transmission and continuous recording (BLEND) design, comprising:

• an ultrasound transducer, the ultrasound transducer including a plurality of elements;
• a data acquisition system, the data acquisition systems including analog electronics, an analog-to-digital converter, and a first CPU (central processing unit) or first GPU (graphic processing unit);
• a display device;
• a keyboard;
• a pointing device;
• a data acquisition device that includes analog to digital converters (ADC);
• and
• a processing unit that includes a second CPUs or a second GPU,
• wherein the first and second CPUs and the first and second GPUs are adapted to:
• acquire, via the ultrasound transducer and the data acquisition system, raw radio-frequency data by transmitting a plurality of ultrasound beams in such a way that a subsequent ultrasound beam is transmitted before a previous ultrasound beam is received by the ultrasound transducer;
• record the raw radio-frequency data with the data acquisition system;
• send the raw radio-frequency data to the processing unit;
• deblend the raw radio-frequency data into individual ultrasound beam data;
• process and send the deblended ultrasound beam data to CPU memories or GPU memories;
• beamform the deblended ultrasound beam data on the first and second CPUs or the first and second GPUs to obtain an ultrasound image;
• and
• process and send the ultrasound image to the display device.