Multi stage beamforming
AssigneeSiemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
InventorJohn C. Lazenby
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Beamforming for N elements in performed in log(N) steps of complexity O(N). The signals measured at each element are treated as a receive beam formed by that element with a beam width equal to the element pattern or the width of the transmit illumination. In each of multiple stages, the number of elements is halved by effectively doubling the pitch. The number of beams formed by each element is doubled by narrowing the beam width by a factor of 2 in sin(θ). Since steering and focusing are separated, a single set of delays are applied to each element signal individually prior to the multi-stage beam forming for each finite depth. The data is in a sector format, but by using two beamforming steps, data in a Vector® format is provided.
Claims16
A system for beamforming ultrasound data from a region of a patient, the system comprising:
- a first plurality of delays operable to be connected with a respective plurality of transducer elements, the first plurality of delays operable to steer signals from the plurality of transducer elements in first and second different directions, the signals steered in the first direction being a first set of data and the signals steered in the second direction being a second set of data;
- at least a first filter connected with the first plurality of delays, the at least the first filter operable to filter the first and second sets of data;
- at least a first decimator operable to decimate the first and second sets of the filtered data;
- a second plurality of delays operable to be connected with the at least the first decimator, the second plurality of delays operable to steer the first set of decimated data in third and fourth different directions and operable to steer the second set of decimated data in fifth and sixth directions;
- at least a second filter connected with the second plurality of delays, the at least the second filter operable to filter the first and second sets of decimated data steered in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth directions;
- at least a second decimator operable to decimate the sets of data filtered by the second filter and steered in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth directions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.