CPC A61B 8/4494 (2013.01) [A61B 8/56 (2013.01); G01S 7/52023 (2013.01); G01S 7/5208 (2013.01); G01S 7/52085 (2013.01); G01S 7/52095 (2013.01); G01S 7/52096 (2013.01); G01S 15/8925 (2013.01); G10K 11/341 (2013.01); G10K 11/346 (2013.01); A61B 8/4461 (2013.01)] | 19 Claims |
1. An ultrasound probe for digital microbeamforming, comprising: a two-dimensional array transducer; a digital microbeamformer comprising: a plurality of transmitters coupled to the array; a plurality of amplifiers coupled to the a rray a nd configured to receive analog echo signals from transducer elements of the array during a receive period; a plurality of low-power delta-sigma or successive approximation analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) coupled to the amplifiers and configured to receive amplified analog echo signals and convert them to digital echo data; a microbeamformer controller; a power supply; and a digital output circuit configured to provide the digital echo data to a system beamformer, the system beamformer disposed in an ultrasound system external to the ultrasound probe, wherein the digital microbeamformer is configured to consume three watts or less during operation.
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