System and method for ultrasound imaging

A system for ultrasound imaging, comprising:

• an analog to digital converter for digitizing ultrasound echo signals from a plurality of transducer elements in response to ultrasound transmit beams;
• a matched filter for filtering the digitized ultrasound echo signals;
• a first buffer for storing the ultrasound echo signals;
• a beamformer for computing beam sums of the ultrasound echo signals, wherein the beamformer is focused at a point to be imaged,
• a second buffer for storing into a time record a plurality of said beam sums corresponding to multiple instants of time in a time window;
• a second filter for filtering the time record based, at least in part, on a predetermined response function;
• and
• a processor to reconstruct a set of image samples, the processor performing the following for at least a portion of the set of image samples:
• computing a coherent sum of at least one of the beam sums in the filtered time record;
• and
• demodulating the coherent sum to form an output image sample corresponding to the point to be imaged.