US 11,911,218 B2
Two dimensional ultrasonic array transducer with one dimensional patches
Man Nguyen, Cambridge, MA (US); Jean-Luc Robert, Cambridge, MA (US); Ramon Quido Erkamp, Cambridge, MA (US); Sheng-Wen Huang, Cambridge, MA (US); Bernard Joseph Savord, Andover, MA (US); and Emil George Radulescu, Ossining, NY (US)
Assigned to KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V., Eindhoven (NL)
Appl. No. 16/088,288
Filed by KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V., Eindhoven (NL)
PCT Filed Mar. 28, 2017, PCT No. PCT/EP2017/057301
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 25, 2018,
PCT Pub. No. WO2017/167742, PCT Pub. Date Oct. 5, 2017.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/315,225, filed on Mar. 30, 2016.
Prior Publication US 2019/0083064 A1, Mar. 21, 2019
Int. Cl. A61B 8/00 (2006.01); G01S 15/89 (2006.01); G01S 7/52 (2006.01); A61B 8/14 (2006.01)
CPC A61B 8/4488 (2013.01) [A61B 8/145 (2013.01); A61B 8/463 (2013.01); A61B 8/466 (2013.01); A61B 8/54 (2013.01); G01S 7/5208 (2013.01); G01S 15/8925 (2013.01); G01S 15/8927 (2013.01); G01S 7/52095 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for display of 2D or 3D images comprising:
an ultrasound probe having a two dimensional array transducer adapted to scan a target region with lxN patches of elements of the array, wherein N extends in a dimension of the array transducer, wherein the N dimension of the patches extends in one of an elevation or azimuth dimension, and wherein each 1×N patch is divided into subpatches comprising a plurality of elements less than the full N elements;
a microbeamformer located in the ultrasound probe and coupled to elements of the array which applies delays to a plurality of subpatch signals received from each subpatch to focus the subpatch signals in the one of the dimensions;
a system beamformer coupled to the ultrasound probe to receive the focused patch subpatch signals and apply delays to the subpatch signals to steer and/or focus the signals in the other of the elevation or azimuth dimensions;
a beamformer controller, coupled to the microbeamformer and the system beamformer, and responsive to a user control to control the scanning of a target region;
an image processor responsive to the signals steered and/or focused by the system beamformer to produce image data; and
a display, coupled to the image processor, to display a 2D or 3D image of the target region.