Method and apparatus using golay-coded excitation for echocardiology

An imaging system comprising:

• a transducer array including a multiplicity of transducer elements for transmitting wave energy in response to electrical activation and for transducing returned wave energy into electrical signals;
• a transmitter coupled to said transducer array and programmed to activate selected transducer elements forming a transmit aperture to transmit focused wave energy encoded with first through third Golay-encoded transmit sequences during first through third transmit firings respectively, said Golay-encoded transmit sequences being formed by convolving a base sequence with a first or a second Golay code of a Golay code pair, and said second transmit firing being transmitted after said first transmit firing and before said third transmit firing;
• a receiver programmed to form first through third receive vectors from electrical signals provided by selected ones of said transducer elements forming a receive aperture subsequent to each of said first through third transmit firings, respectively;
• a filter programmed to filter said first through third receive vectors as a function of said first and second Golay codes and as a function of first through third weighting factors, respectively;
• a vector summer for summing said first through third filtered receive vectors;
• and
• a subsystem for displaying an image having an image portion which is a function of the summed filtered receive vectors.

An imaging system comprising:

• a transducer array including a multiplicity of transducer elements for transmitting wave energy in response to electrical activation and for transducing returned wave energy into electrical signals;
• a display monitor for displaying an image having an image portion which is a function of an image signal;
• and
• a computer programmed to perform the steps of:
• activating a plurality of said transducer elements to transmit focused wave energy encoded with first through third Golay-encoded transmit sequences during first through third transmit firings, respectively, said Golay-encoded transmit sequences being formed by convolving a base sequence with a first or a second Golay code of a Golay code pair, said second transmit firing being transmitted after said first transmit firing and before said third transmit firing;
• forming first through third receive vectors from electrical signals provided by selected ones of said transducer elements forming a receive aperture subsequent to each of said first through third transmit firings, respectively;
• filtering said first through third receive vectors as a function of said first and second Golay codes and as a function of first through third weighting factors, respectively;
• summing the first through third filtered receive vectors;
• forming an image signal from the summed filtered receive vectors;
• and
• sending said image signal to said display monitor.

A method of operating an imaging system comprising a multiplicity of transducer elements for transmitting wave energy in response to electrical activation and for transducing returned wave energy into electrical signals, and a display monitor for displaying an image having an image portion which is a function of an image signal, said method comprising the steps of:

• activating a plurality of said transducer elements to transmit focused wave energy encoded with first through third Golay-encoded transmit sequences during first through third transmit firings, respectively, said Golay-encoded transmit sequences being formed by convolving a base sequence with a first or a second Golay code of a Golay code pair, said second transmit firing being transmitted after said first transmit firing and before said third transmit firing;
• forming first through third receive vectors from electrical signals provided by selected ones of said transducer elements forming a receive aperture subsequent to each of said first through third transmit firings, respectively;
• filtering said first through third receive vectors as a function of said first and second Golay codes and as a function of first through third weighting factors, respectively;
• summing the first through third filtered receive vectors;
• forming an image signal from the summed filtered receive vectors;
• and
• sending said image signal to said display monitor.

An imaging system comprising:

• a transducer array including a multiplicity of transducer elements for transmitting wave energy centered at a fundamental frequency in response to electrical activation and for transducing returned wave energy into electrical signals;
• a transmitter coupled to said transducer array and programmed to activate a plurality of said transducer elements to transmit focused wave energy encoded with a first Golay code of a Golay code pair during first and third transmit events and to transmit focused wave energy encoded with a second Golay code of said Golay code pair during a second transmit event occurring after said first transmit event and prior to said third transmit event;
• a receiver programmed to respectively form first through third receive signals from electrical signals provided by said plurality of transducer elements subsequent to said first through third transmit events, respectively;
• a wall filter programmed with first through third sets of filter coefficients to decode, bandpass and wall filter first through third fundamental signal components of said first through third receive signals, respectively, said wall filter being adapted to form an image signal derived at least in part from the decoded, bandpassed and wall-filtered first through third fundamental signal components;
• and
• a subsystem for displaying an image having an image portion which is a function of at least said image signal.