Ultrasonic diagnosing apparatus

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising a probe having two-dimensional array of transducer elements for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to an object to be examined, in which a circular pattern of transducer elements is formed for transmitting and receiving an ultrasound signal by bundling the transducer elements of said two-dimensional array electronically to compose a multi-ring arrangement of transducer elements in concentric rings, and an ultrasound beam is transmitted and received with application of a delay time between each ring of said multi-ring arrangement, wherein said ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus further comprises means for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic beam that has been corrected using said multi-ring arrangement by measuring a focusing error due to the presence of a sound speed non-uniformity interior of said object and modifying at least one of the manner of bundling of said multi-ring arrangement or the delay time based on the measuring error, and means for imaging the object with an echo signal formed of the corrected ultrasonic beam,

• wherein a bundled arrangement of transducer elements is provided that is different from that of said multi-ring arrangement composed by bundling said transducer elements of said two-dimensional array of said probe in concentric rings, and a focusing error due to the presence of a sound speed non-uniformity part in the object is measured between each circular pattern, and the ultrasonic beam is corrected by feeding back a measured value to delay circuits in said transmission and receiving means and returning the multi-ring arrangement to an initial setting.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

• a probe having a two-dimensional array of transducer elements;
• transducer selection means for electronically bundling transducer elements into a multi-ring arrangement of a circular pattern composed of a plural number of rings,
• said multi-ring arrangement of transducer elements formed by bundling transducer elements of the two-dimensional array in said probe in concentric rings being divided into a plural number of sections in a radial shape from a center to an outside of the circular pattern;
• means for calculating a focusing error between sections in said multi-ring arrangement;
• means for feed-back correcting said calculated focusing error relative to a set delay time to produce a corrected focusing error signal;
• means for beam-forming comprised of delay circuits for applying a delay time to each ring of said multi-ring arrangement of transducer elements in response to a corrected focusing error signal and an adder circuit for adding the outputs of said each delay circuits;
• and
• means for imaging an output signal of said means for beam-forming.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

• transducer selection means for initially forming a multi-ring arrangement of transducer elements composed of a plural number of rings from a two-dimensional array of transducer elements;
• means for specifying transducer elements having a focusing error in each ring of said multi-ring arrangement;
• ring correction means for changing a specified transducer element to a different ring from initial ring location to correct the focusing error;
• a beam-forming part comprised of delay circuits for applying a delay time to the transducer elements of each ring of said multi-ring arrangement and an adder circuit for adding the outputs of each of said delay circuits;
• and
• means for imaging an output signal of said beam-forming part.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

• a probe having a two-dimensional array of transducer elements arranged in a circular pattern so as to produce a multi-ring arrangement of transducer elements formed by bundling transducer elements of the two-dimensional array in said probe in concentric rings which are divided into a plural number of sections in a radial shape from a center to an outside of the circular pattern;
• means for calculating a focusing error between sections of the concentric rings;
• means for feed-back correcting said calculated focusing error relative to a set delay time to produce a corrected focusing error signal;
• means for beam-forming comprised of delay circuits for applying a delay time each ring of said multi-ring arrangement of transducer elements in response to a corrected focusing error signal and an adder circuit for adding the outputs of said each delay circuits;
• and
• means for imaging an output signal of said means for beam-forming.