Ultrasonic imaging apparatus
AssigneeTokyo Shibaura Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKazuyoshi Saito, Taketoshi Iida, Toshio Shirasaka, Yasuhiko Takemura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Ultrasonic imaging apparatus including ultrasonic transducers for emitting acoustic wave beams of various apertures, apparatus for directing two acoustic wave beams of substantially different focussing distances on the same beam direction, circuitry for receiving the reflected waves corresponding to the beam directions, apparatus for modulating the scanning lines corresponding to the beam directions of the reflected acoustic waves, and apparatus for composing the scanning lines corresponding to the two acoustic beams directed on the same beam direction into a single scanning line for display.
Claims11
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus for displaying a tomographic image of a subject to be examined comprising:
- means for emitting directed acoustic wave beams of various focusing distances into a subject;
- beam control means coupled to said emitting means for directing at least a series of acoustic wave beams, each series including at least two consecutive wave beams having a common axis but substantially different respective focusing distances from said emitting means;
- means for receiving the reflected wave beams corresponding to each of the consecutive wave beams of a series;
- receiver control means coupled with said receiving means for controlling the duration of time the receiver means receives the reflected wave beams so that the duration of reception of at least one of said consecutive acoustic wave beams in a series is different;
- modulating means coupled to said receiving means for generating modulated scanning lines corresponding to each of the received reflected wave beams of a series;
- display control means coupled with said modulating means for composing the modulated scanning lines corresponding to each of the consecutive wave beams of a series into a single image scanning line, said display control means including (i) means for unblanking the portions of each said respective modulated scanning line that corresponds to the respective range of focusing distance of each of said consecutive acoustic beams and for blanking the remaining portions, if any, and (ii) means for composing said unblanked portions of the consecutive acoustic beams of each series into a single image scanning line;
- and
- display means coupled with said display control means for displaying a tomographic image of the subject.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.