Method and apparatus for focus control of transmit and receive beamformer systems

An ultrasound beamformer system comprising:

• a transmit beamformer system for generating a transmit signal;
• a receive beamformer system for processing a signal received from a target which results from the transmit signal interacting with the target;
• and
• a beamformer control system for controlling both the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system, said control system including:
• (1) a primary control for generating primary parameter profiles for controlling both the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system, and (2) a secondary control for generating secondary parameter profiles based on the primary parameter profiles for controlling at least one of the receive beamformer system and the transmit beamformer system.

An ultrasound beamformer system comprising:

• a programmable transmit beamformer system for generating a transmit signal;
• a programmable receive beamformer system for processing a signal received from a target which results from the transmit signal interacting with the target;
• and
• a beamformer control system for controlling both the programmable transmit beamformer system and the programmable receive beamformer system by distributing the generation of a parameter set, for controlling the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system, between a primary control system and a distributed secondary control system, and wherein
• said programmable transmit beamformer system includes multiple transmit processors, each transmit processor being operative to process signals for elements of a transducer array;
• said programmable receive beamformer system includes multiple receive processors, each receive processor being operative to process signals from elements of said transducer array, and
• said distributed secondary control system including a separate secondary control for each transmit processor and a separate secondary control for each receive processor.

An ultrasound beamformer control system for use with (1) a transmit beamformer system for generating a transmit signal and (2) a receive beamformer system for processing a signal received from a target which results from the transmit signal interacting with the target, the control system comprising:

• a beamformer control for controlling both the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system, said control including:
• (1) a primary control for generating primary parameter profiles for controlling both the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system;
• and
• (2) a secondary control for generating secondary parameter profiles based on the primary parameter profiles generated by the primary control for controlling the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system.

An ultrasound beamformer control system for use with (1) a transmit beamformer system for generating a transmit signal and (2) a receive beamformer system for processing a signal received from a target, the control system comprising:

• a beamformer control for controlling the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system, said beamformer control comprising:
• (1) a primary control for generating primary beamforming parameters for controlling both the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system, which primary beamforming parameters are generated for at least one reference depth;
• and
• (2) a secondary control for generating secondary beamforming parameters, by interpolation, based on the primary beamforming parameters for controlling the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system, said secondary control thereby reducing a quantity of parameters stored and processed by the primary control, and thereby reducing the quantity of parameters which must be communicated from the primary control to the secondary control.

An ultrasound beamformer system comprising:

• a transmit beamformer system for generating a transmit signal;
• a receive beamformer system for processing a signal received from a target which results from the transmit signal interacting with the target;
• and
• a beamformer control system for controlling both the transmit beamformer system and the receive beamformer system using at least one common expandable beamforming parameter profile.

An ultrasound beamformer system comprising:

• a transmit beamformer system for generating a transmit signal;
• a receive beamformer system for processing a signal received from a target which results from the transmit signal interacting with the target;
• and
• said transmit beamformer system comprising multiple transmit processors, each transmit processor operative to process signals for individual elements of a transducer array;
• said receive beamformer system comprising multiple receive processors, each receive processor operative to process signals from individual elements of a transducer array;
• a beamformer control system comprising a primary control system and a distributed secondary control system;
• said distributed secondary control system comprising a separate secondary control for each transmit processor and a separate secondary control for each receive processor.

A method for controlling (1) an ultrasound transmit beamformer system for generating a transmit signal and (2) an ultrasound receive beamformer system for processing a signal received from a target which results from the transmit signal interacting with the target, the method comprising the steps of:

• using a set of sparsely-sampled reference time delay profiles;
• origin shifting a first reference time delay profile by an integral number of transducer element widths to a first origin position;
• angle interpolating the origin-shifted first reference time delay profile in angle;
• and
• origin interpolating to a second origin of the angle-interpolated origin-shifted first reference time delay profile by a fractional transducer element width to a second origin position to create a second reference time delay profile.

A method for generating apodization profiles for arbitrary scan line origin and angle to control (1) an ultrasound transmit beamformer system for generating a transmit signal and (2) an ultrasound receive beamformer system for processing a signal received from a target which results from the transmit signal interacting with the target, the method comprising the steps of:

• calculating an apodization width using interpolation by scan line number and range among apodization width profile values;
• calculating an arbitrary apodization origin using interpolation by scan line number and range among apodization origin profile values;
• using the results of the first two steps together with a selected base apodization template to interpolate a base apodization profile;
• calculating a correction profile using interpolation by scan line angle and range among apodization correction profile values;
• and
• generating a corrected apodization profile by multiplying the base apodization profile with the correction profile.

A method for generating an apodization profile for arbitrary scan line origin and angle for a selected scan geometry, to control (1) an ultrasound transmit beamformer system for generating a transmit signal and (2) an ultrasound receive beamformer system for processing a signal received from a target which results from the transmit signal interacting with the target, the method comprising the steps of:

• generating a base apodization profile for the selected scan geometry;
• generating a correction profile for the selected scan geometry;
• and
• generating a corrected apodization profile by modifying the base apodization profile with the correction profile.