Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Patent
1998-10-09
1999-10-12
Manuel, George
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
A61B 800
Patent
active
059647094
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventional ultrasound imaging systems typically include a hand-held scan head coupled by a cable to a large rack-mounted console processing and display unit. The scan head typically includes an array of ultrasonic transducers which transmit ultrasonic energy into a region being imaged and receive reflected ultrasonic energy returning from the region. The transducers convert the received ultrasonic energy into low-level electrical signals which are transferred over the cable to the processing unit. The processing unit applies appropriate beam forming techniques such as dynamic focusing to combine the signals from the transducers to generate an image of the region of interest.
Typical conventional ultrasound systems can have transducer arrays which consist of 128 ultrasonic transducers. Each of the transducers is associated with its own processing circuitry located in the console processing unit. The processing circuitry typically includes driver circuits which, in the transmit mode, send precisely timed drive pulses to the transducer to initiate transmission of the ultrasonic signal. These transmit timing pulses are forwarded from the console processing unit along the cable to the scan head. In the receive mode, beam forming circuits of the processing circuitry introduce the appropriate delay into each low-level electrical signal from the transducers to dynamically focus the signals such that an accurate image can subsequently be generated.
A schematic block diagram of an imaging array 18 of N piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers 18(1)-18(N) as used in an ultrasound imaging system is shown in FIG. 1A. The array of piezoelectric transducer elements 18(1)-18(N) generate acoustic pulses which propagate into the image target (typically a region of human tissue) or transmitting media with a narrow beam. The pulses propagate as a spherical wave with a constant velocity. Acoustic echoes in the form of returning signals from image points P or reflectors are detected by the same array 18 of transducer elements or another receiving array and can be displayed in a fashion to indicate the location of the reflecting structure P.
The acoustic echo from the point P in the transmitting media reaches each transducer element 18(1)-18(N) of the receiving array after various propagation times. The propagation time for each transducer element is different and depends on the distance between each transducer element and the point P. This holds true for typical ultrasound transmitting media, i.e. soft bodily tissue, where the velocity of sound is assumed (or relatively) constant. Thereafter, the received information is displayed in a manner to indicate the location of the reflecting structure.
In two-dimensional B-mode scanning, the pulses can be transmitted along a number of lines-of-sight as shown in FIG. 1A. If the echoes are sampled and their amplitudes are coded as brightness, a grey scale image can be displayed on a CRT. An image typically contains 128 such scanned lines at 0.75.degree. angular spacing, forming a 90.degree. sector image. Since the velocity of sound in water is 1.54.times.10.sup.5 cm/sec, the round-trip time to a depth of 16 cm will be 208 .mu.s. Thus, the total time required to acquire data along 128 lines of sight (for one image) is 26.6 ms. If other signal processors in the system are fast enough to keep up with this data acquisition rate, two-dimensional images can be produced at rates corresponding to standard television video. For example, if the ultrasound imager is used to view reflected or back scattered sound waves through the chest wall between a pair of ribs, the heart pumping can be imaged in real time.
The ultrasonic transmitter is typically a linear array of piezoelectric transducers 18(1)-18(N) (typically spaced half-wavelength apart) for steered arrays whose elevation pattern is fixed and whose azimuth pattern is controlled primarily by delay steering. The radiating (azimuth) beam pattern of a conventional array is controlled primarily by applying delayed transm
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Broadstone Steven R.
Chiang Alice M.
Manuel George
Teratech Corporation
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