Dynamic receive beamformer with oversampling for medical diagnostic ultrasound
AssigneeSiemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
InventorsD-L Donald Liu, Daniel Edward Brueske, Brian Vincent Colby
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Abstract
Receive beamformers for receive beamforming ultrasound information include a plurality of channels. The received signals for each channel are oversampled for conversion to digital form, such as sampling with a sigma-delta converter. The reconstruction of the samples into data at the Nyquist or other rate is performed in stages. Partial reconstruction to a rate less than the oversampling rate, but greater than the Nyquist rate, occurs prior to summation across channels. Delays are implemented by selecting data from the sample stream. After summation, the samples are reconstructed at a Nyquist or other rate.
Claims21
A receive beamformer system for beamforming ultrasound information, the receive beamformer system comprising:
- first and second receive channel paths each comprising:
- an oversampling analog-to-digital converter;
- and
- a first decimation circuit connected with an output, of the converter;
- a summer connected with the first and second receive channel paths;
- and
- a second decimation circuit connected with an output of the summer;
- wherein the first decimation circuit is operable to dynamically decimate under control of a dynamic delay controller.
A method for receive beamforming ultrasound information, the method comprising:
- oversampling received signals in at least two channels;
- partially reconstructing, in the at least two channels, first higher bit width signals from the oversampled received signals, the first higher bit width signals having a higher bit width than the oversampled received signals;
- summing the first higher bit width signals from the at least two channels;
- and
- reconstructing second higher bit width signals from the summed first higher bit width signals, the second higher bit width signals having a higher bit width than the first higher bit width signals;
- wherein partially reconstructing comprises filtering and decimating by at least two but less than an oversampling ratio.
A system for receive beamforming ultrasound information, the system comprising:
- an oversampling analog-to-digital converter;
- a first low pass filter operable to construct first samples with a greater bit width than output from the converter;
- a summer operable to sum the greater bit width samples with other samples;
- and
- a second low pass filter operable to construct second samples from an output of the summer, the second samples having a greater bit width than the first samples.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.