Ultrasonic measurement apparatus, ultrasonic image apparatus, and ultrasonic measurement method
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorsMasaki Hayashi, Ryoki Watanabe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultrasonic measurement apparatus includes a reception processing unit, a harmonic processing unit, a signal processing unit and an image generation unit. The reception processing unit is configured to receive, as a received signal, an ultrasonic echo corresponding to an ultrasonic wave transmitted toward a subject. The harmonic processing unit is configured to extract a harmonic component of the ultrasonic echo from the received signal. The signal processing unit is configured to add a weighting to the harmonic component by using a weight that varies depending on a value of the harmonic component. The image generation unit is configured to generate an image based on a signal to which the weighting has been added.
Claims11
An ultrasonic measurement apparatus comprising:
- a receiver configured to receive a plurality of ultrasonic echoes at different incident angles, the ultrasonic echoes corresponding to an ultrasonic wave transmitted toward a subject and containing fundamental wave components and harmonic components;
- a harmonic processor configured to extract a second or higher-order harmonic component signal of each of the ultrasonic echoes;
- a signal processor configured to perform minimum variance beamforming process only to the extracted harmonic component signals by applying to the extracted harmonic component signals respective weights, which vary according to incident angles of the ultrasonic echoes to reduce sensitivity to the ultrasonic echoes received from directions other than a direction of a main lobe of the transmitted ultrasonic wave;
- and
- an image processor configured to generate an image based on the resulting harmonic component signals.
An ultrasonic measurement method comprising:
- receiving, by a receiver, a plurality of ultrasonic echoes at different incident angles, the ultrasonic echoes corresponding to an ultrasonic wave transmitted toward a subject and containing fundamental wave components and harmonic components;
- extracting, by a harmonic processor, a second or higher-order harmonic component signal of each of the ultrasonic echoes;
- performing minimum variance beamforming process only to the extracted harmonic component signals, by a signal processor, by applying to the extracted harmonic component signals respective weights, which vary according to incident angles of the ultrasonic echoes to reduce sensitivity to the ultrasonic echoes received from directions other than a direction of a main lobe of the transmitted ultrasonic wave;
- and
- generating, by an image processor, an image based on the resulting harmonic component signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.