Method of removing an effect of side lobes in forming an ultrasound synthetic image

An ultrasound diagnostic device that removes an effect of side lobes in forming an ultrasound synthetic image having a plurality of pixels, the ultrasound diagnostic device comprising:

• a transmit/receive control unit that sets a plurality of scan lines and defines sequential indices upon the scan lines, and sets a transmit order of transmit beams for the scan lines in a manner according to sequentially ordered scan indices set by alternately decrementing and incrementing a predetermined scan line index of the scan line indices by −1 and +3, respectively;
• a probe that transmits the transmit beam based on the set transmit order to obtain a plurality of receive beams in response to each transmission of the transmit beam;
• and
• a beam former that groups the receive beams to an increment group corresponding to a plurality of scan line pairs of the scan lines, each pair having an index difference of +2, and a decrement group corresponding to a plurality of scan line pairs of the scan lines each pair having an index difference of −1, performs an auto correlation upon the receive beams included in the respective increment group and the decrement group, determines weights based on mean phase differences of the increment and decrement groups, applies the weights to the auto correlation results, and sums the weight-applied auto correlation results to thereby remove said effect of side lobes.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium including computer program instructions, which when executed by an ultrasound diagnostic device, causes the ultrasound diagnostic device to perform a method of removing an effect of side lobes in forming an ultrasound synthetic image having a plurality of pixels, the method comprising:

• setting a plurality of scan lines;
• defining sequential indices upon the scan lines;
• setting a transmit order of transmit beams for the scan lines in a manner according to sequentially ordered scan indices set by alternately decrementing and incrementing a predetermined scan line index of the scan line indices by −1 and +3, respectively;
• transmitting the transmit beam based on the set transmit order to obtain a plurality of receive beams in response to each transmission of the transmit beam;
• grouping the receive beams to an increment group corresponding to a plurality of scan line pairs of the scan lines, each pair having an index difference of +2, and a decrement group corresponding to a plurality of scan line pairs of the scan lines each pair having an index difference of −1;
• performing an auto correlation upon the receive beams included in the respective increment group and the decrement group;
• determining weights based on mean phase differences of the increment and decrement groups;
• applying the weights to the auto correlation results;
• and
• summing the weight-applied auto correlation results to thereby remove said effect of side lobes.