Two-dimensional ultrasonic array with asymmetric apertures
AssigneeVolumetrics Medical Imaging
InventorsStephen Michael Grenon, Ronald E. Hileman
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Abstract
A sparse array that uses a small fraction of a fully populated array but yields a radiation pattern that is suitable for high quality medical imaging. The sparse array consists of two or more separate zones for transmitting and receiving as opposed to the overlapping arrays of the prior art. More specifically, a preferred embodiment sets forth an inner array of transmit elements with a narrow effective aperture and a separate non-overlapping outer array of receive elements with a wide effective aperture. The combination of asymmetric apertures is particularly useful for parallel processing applications. This abstract is provided as a tool for those searching for patents, and not as a limitation on the scope of the claims.
Claims23
An array structure for transmitting and receiving energy having a center axis, comprising:
- a transmit array comprising elements spaced at intervals equal to one half of the wavelength of an operating frequency within a bandwidth of the transmit elements, a centerline of the transmit array being substantially coaxial with the center axis, an area containing the transmit array defined by a space within an annular space between radius R(T inner) and radius R(T outer) taken with respect to the enter axis;
- and
- a separate receive array comprising receive elements spaced at intervals equal to one half of the wavelength of an operating frequency within a bandwidth of the transmit elements, a centerline of the transmit array substantially coaxial with the center axis, an area of the receive array defined by the space within the annular space between radius R(R inner) and radius R(R outer) taken with respect to the center axis where R(T outer) is greater than R(T inner), R(R inner) is greater than R(T outer) and R(R outer is greater than R(R inner) such that the receive array is within an annular region outside of the area containing the transmit array.
An array structure for transmitting and receiving energy having a center axis, comprising:
- a transmit array comprising transmit elements spaced at intervals equal to one half of the wavelength of an operating frequency within a bandwidth of the transmit elements, the center of the transmit array being substantially coaxial with the center axis, an area of the transmit array defined by a space within a polygon defined by a set of n vertices located at approximately distance V(To) from the center axis;
- an
- a separate receive array comprising receive elements spaced at intervals equal to one half of the wavelength of an operating frequency within a bandwidth of the receive elements, a region containing the receive array defined by an annular polygonal space defined by an inner polygon and an outer polygon wherein:
- the inner polygon is defined by a set of nn vertices located at approximately distance V(Ri) from the center axis;
- the outer polygon is defined by a set of nnn vertices located at approximately distance V(Ro) from the center axis;
- V(To) is less than V(Ri);
- and
- V(Ri) is less than V(Ro).
A method of acquiring information for medical imaging comprising:
- transmitting energy from an inner array of transmit elements spaced at intervals equal to one half of the wavelength of an operating frequency within a bandwidth of the transmit elements to electronically illuminate a target area within a body;
- then
- using a separate set of receive elements located in a band of receive elements spaced at intervals equal to one half of the wavelength of an operating frequency within a bandwidth of the receive elements, the band located outside the inner array of transmit elements, the set of receive elements used to receive reflected energy from a fraction of the illuminated target area;
- and
- using parallel processing to combine information from reflected energy from several sets of data collected by various sets of receive elements to form a three-dimensional image of the target area within the body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.