	US 12,259,503 B2
	Method and system for adaptive beamforming of ultrasound signals
Wouter Marinus Benjamin Luijten, Eindhoven (NL); Ruud Johannes Gerardus Van Sloun, Eindhoven (NL); Frederik Jan De Bruijn, Eindhoven (NL); and Harold Agnes Wilhelmus Schmeitz, Eindhoven (NL)
Assigned to KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V., Eindhoven (NL)
Appl. No. 17/288,043
Filed by KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V., Eindhoven (NL)
PCT Filed Oct. 22, 2019, PCT No. PCT/EP2019/078739 § 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 23, 2021, PCT Pub. No. WO2020/083918, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 30, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 18202469 (EP), filed on Oct. 25, 2018; and application No. 19164249 (EP), filed on Mar. 21, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0382157 A1, Dec. 9, 2021
Int. Cl. G01S 7/52 (2006.01); G01S 15/89 (2006.01); G06N 3/08 (2023.01); G10K 11/34 (2006.01)

CPC G01S 7/52085 (2013.01) [G06N 3/08 (2013.01); G10K 11/34 (2013.01); G01S 15/8915 (2013.01)]

20 Claims

1. A method for adaptive beamforming of ultrasound signals, the method comprising the steps of:

a) receiving RF signals acquired by multiple ultrasound transducer elements in response to an ultrasound transmission;

b) performing time-of-flight correction on the received RF signals to generate time-aligned RF signals;

c) determining content-adaptive apodization weights for beamforming the RF signals by applying a trained artificial neural network to the time-aligned RF signals, wherein the trained artificial neural network takes the time-aligned RF signals as input and outputs the content-adaptive apodization weights; and

d) applying the content-adaptive apodization weights to the time-aligned RF signals to calculate a beamformed output signal that corresponds to a single pixel in an ultrasound image within a field-of-view of the ultrasound transmission.