High frequency array ultrasound system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-RE46185-E
Application number	US-201313789539-A
Country	US
Kind code	E1
Filing date	Mar 7, 2013
Priority date	Nov 2, 2005
Publication date	Oct 25, 2016
Grant date	Oct 25, 2016

Abstract

A system for acquiring an ultrasound signal comprises a signal processing unit adapted for acquiring a received ultrasound signal from an ultrasound transducer having a plurality of elements. The system is adapted to receive ultrasound signals having a frequency of at least 20 megahertz (MHz) with a transducer having a field of view of at least 5.0 millimeters (mm) at a frame rate of at least 20 frames per second (fps). The signal processing can further produce an ultrasound image from the acquired ultrasound signal. The transducer can be a linear array transducer, a phased array transducer, a two-dimensional (2-D) array transducer, or a curved array transducer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An ultrasound imaging system, comprising:
an arrayed ultrasonic transducer having a plurality of elements for transmitting configured to transmit into a subject a transmitted ultrasound signal at a transmit center frequency of up to 55 15 megahertz (MHz) or greater; and
a signal processing unit operatively connected with said arrayed ultrasonic transducer and comprising:
a digital transmit beamformer subsystem comprising one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), each having an FPGA clock frequency (FPGA fc), said digital transmit beamformer subsystem having a delay resolution time of at least [1/(2×FPGA fc)] or greater (1/(2×FPGA fc)) or less,
a receive beamformer subsystem,
a front end electronics module,
a beamformer control module,
a signal processing module,
a parallel to serial converter, and
a computer unit;

wherein said signal processing unit is configured to acquire a received ultrasound signal having a frequency of at least 15 MHz from said arrayed ultrasound transducer, and wherein said digital transmit beamformer subsystem is configured to transmit an ultrasound signal having said transmit center frequency by encoding a fine delay and half-cycle sections of said transmitted ultrasound signal into bit words that are converted to a serial bit stream by said parallel to serial converter, wherein said transmitted ultrasound signal comprises a positive transmit pulse having a positive pulse width and a negative transmit pulse having a negative pulse width, and said positive pulse width and said negative pulse width are independently adjustable.

2. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein said bit words are up to 16 bit words.

3. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein said transmitted ultrasound signal further comprises (i) a plurality of positive half-wave cycle sections, each comprising at least one said positive transmit pulse and (ii) a plurality of negative half-wave cycle sections, each comprising at least one said negative transmit pulse.

4. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein said transmitted ultrasound signal comprises an adjustable number of cycles transmitted.

5. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein said front end electronics module is constructed as a replaceable plug-in module.

6. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein said arrayed ultrasonic transducer is selected from the group consisting of a linear array transducer, a phased array transducer, a two-dimensional (2-D) array transducer, and a curved array transducer.

7. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein said transmitted ultrasound signal has a transmit center frequency of 15 MHz up to 55 MHz.

8. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein
said signal processing module utilizes quadrature sampling and has a receive sampling frequency,
wherein said signal processing unit is configured so that said receive sampling frequency may be selectively chosen.

9. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 ,
wherein said arrayed ultrasonic transducer has a field of view of at least 5.0 millimeters (mm);
and wherein said signal processing unit is adapted for acquiring configured to acquire a received ultrasound signal from said arrayed ultrasound transducer at a an acquisition frame rate of at least 20 frames per second (fps).

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
saidthe arrayed ultrasound transducer is capable of generating and transmittingconfigured to generate and transmit into a subject ultrasound at a frequency of up to at least 55 megahertz (MHz)80 MHz and at a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of at least 500 hertz (Hz), and
the arrayed ultrasound transducer is capable of receivingfuther configured to receive ultrasound from the subject,
the arrayed ultrasound transducer has a field of view of at least 5.0 millimeters (mm);, and
wherein saidthe system further comprises a processing unit for generating configured to generate a color flow Doppler or pulsed wave Doppler ultrasound image from the received ultrasound.

11. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein said FPGA fc is the highest operable frequency of the one or more FPGA FPGAs.

12. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein said transmit center frequency is adjustable.

13. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 3 , wherein each fine delay of said at least one said positive transmit pulse within each positive half wave cycle is adjustable, and each fine delay of said at least one said negative transmit pulse within each negative half wave cycle is adjustable.

14. A signal processing unit for an arrayed ultrasound imaging system, the signal processing unit comprising:
a digital transmit beamformer subsystem configured to operate up to 55 MHz at a transmit center frequency of 15 Megahertz (MHz) or greater, wherein said digital transmit beamformer subsystem further comprises one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), each having an FPGA clock frequency (FPGA fc), said digital transmit beamformer subsystem having a delay resolution time of at least [1/(2×FPGA fc)] or greater (1/(2×FPGA fc)) or less;
a digital receive beamformer subsystem;
a front end electronics module;
a beamformer control module;
a signal processing module;
a parallel to serial converter; and
a computer unit,
wherein said signal processing unit is configured to acquire a received ultrasound signal from an arrayed ultrasound transducer having a plurality of elements, and wherein said digital transmit beamformer subsystem is configured to transmit an ultrasound signal having said transmit center frequency by encoding a fine delay and half-cycle sections of said transmitted ultrasound signal into bit words that are converted to a serial bit stream by said parallel to serial converter, wherein said transmitted ultrasound signal comprises a positive transmit pulse having a positive pulse width and a negative transmit pulse having a negative pulse width, and said positive pulse width and said negative pulse width are independently adjustable.

15. The signal processing unit of claim 14 , wherein said bit words are up to 16 bit words.

16. The signal processing unit of claim 14 , wherein said transmitted ultrasound signal comprises an adjustable number of cycles transmitted.

17. The signal processing unit of claim 14 , wherein said front end electronics module is constructed as a replaceable plug-in module.

18. The signal processing unit of claim 14 , wherein said arrayed ultrasonic transducer is selected from the group consisting of a linear array transducer, a phased array transducer, a two-dimensional (2-D) array transducer, and a curved array transducer.

19. The signal processing unit of claim 14 , wherein said transmit center frequency is 15 MHz up to 55 MHz.

20. The signal processing unit of claim 14 , wherein said FPGA fc is the highest operable frequency of the one or more FPGA.

21. The signal processing unit of claim 14 , wherein said transmit center frequency is adjustable.

22. A digital transmit beamformer for an arrayed ultrasound imaging system, the digital transmit beamformer comprising:
one or more FPGAs, each having an FPGA clock frequency (FPGA fc); and
a parallel to serial converter,
wherein said digital transmit beamformer is configured to transmit an ultrasound signal having a transmit center frequency up to 55 of 15 MHz or greater with a delay resolution time of at least [1/(2×FPGA fc)] or greater (1/(2×FPG

Assignees

• Fujifilm Sonosite Inc

Inventors

• Mehi James
• Daigle Ronald E
• Brasfield Laurence C
• Starkoski Brian
• Wen Jerrold
• Liu Kai Wen
• Pflugrath Lauren S
• Foster F Stuart
• Hirson Desmond

Classifications

• G10K11/346

  using phase variation · CPC title

• G01S7/526

  Receivers · CPC title

• G01S15/8959

  using coded signals for correlation purposes · CPC title

• G01S7/52088

  involving retrospective scan line rearrangements (medical diagnostic ultrasound devices involving retrospective matching to a physiological signal A61B8/5284) · CPC title

• G01S7/52095 Primary

  using multiline receive beamforming · CPC title