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US 7,679,988 B2Granted
Sound-wave imaging method and apparatus
AssigneesCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Universite Paris 7-Denis Diderot
InventorsMathias Fink, Gabriel Montaldo, Mickael Tanter
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Abstract
An ultrasound imaging method including an emission step during which an array of transducers is caused to emit at an ultrasound wave focused in a target medium by causing the excitation wave to pass through a reverberant solid object prior to reaching the target medium.
Claims30
A sound-wave imaging method, comprising:
- at least one emission step during which a first array of transducers is caused to emit at least one ultrasound excitation wave presenting a certain central emission frequency fc and focused on at least one target point in a target medium, and said excitation wave is caused to pass through a reverberant solid object prior to reaching the target medium,
- each transducer of the first array being secured to said reverberant solid object and said reverberant solid object being adapted to give rise to multiple reflections of the excitation wave that passes therethrough and to cause an impulse wave of duration 1/fc entering into said solid object to lead to sound emission to the target medium taking place over a duration of not less than 10/fc;
- at least a reception step wherein echoes emitted by the target medium in response to the excitation wave are received;
- and
- an imaging step wherein an image of at least a portion of said target medium is built based on the received echoes.
2 more elements
A sound-wave imaging apparatus comprising at least:
- emitter means comprising a first array of transducers, said emitter means being adapted to cause at least one ultrasound excitation wave to be emitted by the first array of transducers through a reverberant solid object having the transducers of the first array secured thereto, the emitted wave presenting a certain central emission frequency fc and being focused on at least one target point of a target medium,
- said reverberant solid object being adapted to give rise to multiple reflections of the excitation wave passing therethrough and to cause an impulse wave of duration 1/fc entering said solid object to lead to sound being emitted towards the target medium over a duration of not less than 10/fc;
- receiver means for receiving echoes emitted by the target medium in response to the excitation wave, and;
- imaging means for building an image of at least a portion of said target medium based on the received echoes.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.