Ultrasonic imaging apparatus

An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising:

• a probe having a plurality of elements for transmitting or receiving ultrasonic signals;
• at least one of circuitry and a processor configured to effect:
• a beam former configured to perform phasing and addition on the ultrasonic signals received by the plurality of elements;
• a frequency compounder configured to perform frequency compound imaging on the ultrasonic signals subjected to phasing and addition;
• an ultrasonic image generator configured to generate an ultrasonic image from the signal subjected to the frequency compound imaging;
• and
• a display portion configured to effect display of the generated ultrasonic image,
• wherein the at least one of circuitry and processor effect the frequency compounder to include:
• a frequency band divider configured to divide the ultrasonic signals subjected to phasing and addition into signals corresponding to an arbitrary number of frequency bands;
• a separate detector configured to detect each of band divided signals obtained by dividing the ultrasonic signals subiected to phasing and addition into signals corresponding to the arbitrary number of frequency bands and to use the detected signals as an arbitrary number of detected signals by bands;
• and
• an accumulator configured to add the arbitrary number of detected signals by bands with a predetermined addition coefficient,
• wherein the frequency band divider is configured to divide the frequency band with a center frequency fi, a bandwidth σi, and an addition coefficient ci (i=1, 2, . . . n) at the time of addition, which are parameters of the frequency compound imaging;
• the separate detector is configured to detect the detected signals by the divided bands, respectively;
• and
• the accumulator is configured to add intensities of the respective detected signals with the addition coefficient ci, and
• wherein the bandwidth σi and the addition coefficient ci (i=1, 2, . . . n) outputted by the accumulator satisfy a relationship of the following equation
• c1√σ1=c2√σ2=. . .=cn√σn.