Ultrasonic synthetic transmit focusing with a multiline beamformer
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
InventorsClifford Cooley, Karl Thiele, Jean-Luc Robert, Michael Burcher, Brent Robinson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces an image with an extended focal range by transmitting a plurality of beams spaced along an array for multiline reception. The receive multilines of a plurality of transmit beams are spatially aligned and are combined with phase adjustment between the respective receive multilines to prevent undesired phase cancellation. The combined multilines produce the effect of an extended transmit focus so that an image produced using the combined multilines exhibits an extended focal range. To prevent motion artifacts the multiline order is adjustable as a function of image motion.
Claims15
An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system which produces synthetic transmit focusing of a plurality of received lines received for a common line position comprising:
- a probe including an array of transducer elements;
- a transmit beamformer, coupled to the array of transducer elements, and operable to transmit a beam from a plurality of transmit beam locations, each beam exhibiting a focal region and encompassing a plurality of laterally spaced line positions;
- a multiline receive beamformer, coupled to the array of transducer elements, which is operable to produce a plurality of receive lines at a plurality of corresponding line positions in response to one transmit beam at each of different beam locations;
- a multiline combining circuit, responsive to the plurality of receive lines, each of which relates to a common line position produced by the multiline receive beamformer in response to the plurality of transmit beams, and including a plurality of delays which equalize the phase shift variance among the receive lines from different transmit beams at each of the common line positions, the combining circuit being operable to combine the plurality of receive lines at the common line position to produce image data;
- and
- a display which produces an image utilizing the image data.
A method for producing an ultrasound image with an extended focal range, comprising:
- transmitting a plurality of transmit beams from an array transducer, each transmit beam being centered at a different position along the array and each transmit beam encompassing a plurality of laterally spaced line positions which are spatially related to laterally spaced line positions of another beam;
- receiving echo signals with the array transducer;
- concurrently processing the echo signals received in response to one transmit beam to produce a plurality of receive lines of echo signals at the laterally spaced line positions of the beam;
- repeating the concurrently processing for additional transmit beams;
- equalizing the phase shift variance among receive lines at a common line position resulting from transmit beams of different transmit beam positions;
- combining echo signals of receive lines from different transmit beams which are spatially related to a common line position to produce image data;
- and
- producing an image using the image data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.