Manual, portable ultrasonography device, with centralized control and processing in the hardware and with display outputs, which operates in real time with a high image refresh rate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016317123-A1
Application number	US-201414783028-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 10, 2014
Priority date	Apr 8, 2013
Publication date	Nov 3, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The invention is directed to a handheld portable ultrasound device comprising a transducer further comprising piezoelectric elements that emit ultrasonic waves and capture echoes from tissues inside of a patient; a processing unit Field Programmable Gate Array comprising a General Control Device module, a Pulse Emission Control module, a Wave Conformation module, and an Image Processing module; Pulse Generation and Front-End Unit having a pulse generator, a plurality of switches transmission/reception, and a Front-End circuit generating digitized signals; an Imaging and Transmission Unit; and a Visualization Device. The General Control Device module coordinates operations of the Pulse Emission Control modules of Beamforming and Image Processing; the Pulse Emission Control module drives the Pulse Generator; the Beamforming module receives digitized signals or samples stream from the Front-End Circuit delivers a coherent summation of digitized signals by applying selective delays to digitized signals. The Image Processing module generates an ultrasound image.

First claim

1 - 12 . (canceled)

13 . A handheld portable ultrasound device for delivering visualization of tissue inside a patient, comprising:
a power supply ( 100 ); an ultrasonic transducer ( 200 ) comprising a plurality of piezoelectric elements ( 210 ); a Pulse Generation and Front-End unit ( 400 ) comprising:
a Pulse Generator ( 420 );
a plurality of Transmission/Reception Switches ( 410 );
a Front-End circuit ( 430 ) for a plurality of analog channels; and
a plurality of channels in parallel ( 431 );
an Image and Transmission Unit ( 500 ); a Visualization Device ( 600 ) for displaying high resolution and high frame rate visualization outputs; and a FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) digital logic control and data processing unit in which logic blocks of dedicated hardware are interconnected, said FPGA comprising:
a General Device Control Module ( 310 );
a Pulse Emission Control Module ( 330 );
a Beamforming Module ( 340 ); and
an Image Processing Module ( 320 ).

14 . The device according to claim 13 , wherein the Image and Transmission Unit ( 500 ) is connected wirelessly through an antenna ( 510 ), to a Visualization Device ( 600 ) also having an antenna ( 610 ).

15 . The device according to claim 13 , wherein the Visualization Device ( 600 ) consists of a wireless head mounted display.

16 . The device according to claim 13 , wherein the Image and Transmission Unit ( 500 ) is connected to the Visualization Device ( 600 ) through a cable.

17 . The device according to claim 13 , wherein the Pulse Emission Control Unit ( 330 ) is comprised of a plurality of independent pulser units for generating control signals for the Pulse Generator ( 420 ).

18 . A method to generate high resolution and high frame rate output images using a handheld portable ultrasound device, said device consisting of a digital FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) circuit performing logic control and data processing, said process comprising the steps of:
delivering high voltage pulses with a phase shift pattern ( 1020 ) through a Pulse Generation ( 420 ) and a Front-End Unit ( 400 ) to a transducer ( 200 ); converting the high voltage pulses into ultrasonic waves through a plurality of piezoelectric elements ( 210 ) of the transducer ( 200 ); emitting a wave front ( 900 ) through said plurality of piezoelectric elements ( 210 ) of said transducer ( 200 ) in the direction of a patient's tissue; capturing echoes using a plurality of piezoelectric elements ( 210 ) of said transducer ( 200 ); digitizing said captured echoes through a Front-End ( 430 ) circuit so as to generate a stream of digitized signals; applying selective delays ( 1200 ) to the stream of digitized signals to formulate a coherent summation ( 1500 ) of the stream of digitized signals; normalizing the stream of digitized signals; and transforming the normalized stream of digitized signals into an image, using an Image and Transmission Unit ( 500 ) to display it on a Visualization Device ( 600 ); wherein the FPGA processor performs the following functions: coordinates operation of a General Device Control Module ( 310 ) the operation of: Pulse Emission Control Module ( 330 ); Beamforming Module ( 340 ); and Image Processing Module ( 320 ); actuates the Pulse Generator ( 420 ) through the Pulse Emission Control Module ( 330 ), to send high voltage pulses with a shift pattern ( 1020 ) to the transducer ( 200 ) of the first step, where said ultrasonic wave front ( 900 ) is focused in the predetermined point of interest ( 1010 ); receives in the Beamforming Module ( 340 ) said stream of digitized signals from the echoes; and generates a geometrically accurate image in the Image Processing Module ( 320 ) from the coherent summation ( 1500 ) of the stream of digitized signals.

19 . The method according to claim 18 , where in the first step the phase shift pattern of pulses ( 1020 ) is applied to said piezoelectric elements ( 210 ), focusing the ultrasonic wave front ( 900 ) to a predetermined point of interest ( 1010 ), calculated previously off-line.

20 . The method according to claim 18 , wherein the stream of digitized ultrasound signals received by the Beamforming Module ( 340 ), come from 16 digital channels in parallel ( 431 ) and from the Front-End ( 430 ), where the Beamforming Module ( 340 ) oversamples through a process with a low-pass FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filter, performing only non-null multiplications of the FIR filter.

21 . The method according to claim 18 , further comprising the steps of:
performing envelope detection over a single stream of digitized signals; and logarithmically compressing the stream of beamformed samples ( 341 ) and storing the beamformed samples ( 341 ) in a memory, ordered in 32-bit words, each one containing 4 8-bit samples, corresponding to necessary samples to calculate the final brightness value of a pixel on screen, whose coordinates are within the area defined by the samples, allowing the calculation of each pixel from only one memory reading operation.

22 . A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for use in a handheld portable ultrasound device, said FPGA programmed to comprising:
A General Device Control Unit ( 310 ), A Pulse Emission Control Unit ( 330 ), A Beamforming Module ( 340 ), and An Image Processing Module ( 320 ) wherein the General Device Control Unit ( 310 ) coordinates the operation of the Pulse Emission Control Unit ( 330 ), the Beamforming Module ( 340 ) and the Image Processing Module ( 320 ); the Pulse Emission Control Unit ( 330 ) drives a Pulse Generator ( 420 ); the Beamforming Module ( 340 ) receives a plurality of digitized signals or sample streams from echoes applying selective delays ( 1200 ) to those digitized samples or sample streams to deliver a coherent summation ( 1500 ) of said digitized signals or sample streams.

23 . The FPGA of claim 22 adapted to drive the Pulse Generator ( 420 ) and to process data captured by a Front End ( 430 ) of a handheld portable ultrasound device in order to generate an ultrasound image, where said image has approximately 80 scan lines corresponding to pulse emissions of said ultrasound device, wherein each pulse emission focuses to a certain depth, and each scan line is comprised of two consecutive pulse emissions in front of a same piezoelectric element ( 210 ) but with a different focus.

24 . The FPGA of claim 22 wherein the Pulse Emission Control Unit ( 330 ) is adapted to drive a Pulse Generator ( 420 ) with a phase shift pattern ( 1200 ) so that a wave front ( 900 ) is concentrated to a determined point ( 1010 ), requiring only one activation bit to start the whole pulsing sequence of piezoelectric elements ( 210 ) in a moving window configured to focus the ultrasonic beam to a depth at the determined point ( 1010 ), where the phase shifting ( 1020 ) is made taking the piezoelectric element ( 210 ) nearest to the determined point ( 1010 ) to focus as the reference, and where said reference piezoelectric element emits after a constant time interval from the moment when the activation bit initiates the pulsing sequence in order to synchronize the processing of the received signals regardless of the determined point ( 1010 ) selected.

25 . The FPGA of claim 22 wherein the Pulse Emission Control Unit ( 330 ) comprises a plurality of unitary pulsers, each adapted to generate autonomously an ultrasound wave in a single piezoelectric element ( 210 ) generated from a high speed clock, which frequency is higher than the resonant frequency of piezoelectric elements ( 210 ) of a Transducer ( 200 ).

26 . The FPGA of claim 22 whe

Assignees

• Univ Chile
• Megasalud
• Mac Kinnon Y Asoc

Inventors

• Kinnon Dahlgren John Mac
• Duarte-Mermoud Manuel Armando
• Conca Rosende Carlos Eugenio
• Beltrán Maturana Nicolás Humberto
• Maureira Tenorio Rodrigo Andrés
• Johnson Vera Vader
• Moya Fuentes Javier Eduardo

Classifications

• G01S7/52085

  Details related to the ultrasound signal acquisition, e.g. scan sequences (control of medical diagnostic ultrasound devices A61B8/54) · CPC title

• G01S7/5202

  for pulse systems · CPC title

• A61B8/14

  Echo-tomography · CPC title

• A61B8/08

  Clinical applications (A61B8/02, A61B8/04, A61B8/06 take precedence) · CPC title

• A61B8/462

  characterised by constructional features of the display · CPC title