Ultrasound reconstruction unit
View Patent ↗An ultrasound reconstruction unit is provided. In one embodiment, a receive aperture control engine for the unit adaptively determines a set of reconstruction signals based on at least a series of selected echo signals and compares the size of a receive aperture with a predetermined number of reconstruction channels at each imaging point. The unit passes the selected echo signals from selected receive channels of one or more transducer elements to a reconstruction processor if the size of the receive aperture is not greater than the number of reconstruction channels. In another embodiment, the control engine compares the size of the receive aperture with a predetermined number of reconstruction channels at each imaging point and preprocess the selected echo signals to produce reconstructions signals that are equal in number to the number of reconstruction channels if the size of the receive aperture is greater than the number of reconstruction channels. The engine then outputs the reconstruction signals for further processing by a reconstruction processor.
1. An ultrasound reconstruction unit having a receive aperture, comprising:
a transducer array comprising one or more transducer elements, the one or more transducer elements configured to receive ultrasound signals from a medium of interest and convert the received ultrasound signals into echo signals;
a multiplexer configured to selectively couple the one or more transducer elements in the transducer array and pass selected echo signals; and
a receive aperture control engine configured to:
adaptively determine a set of reconstruction signals based on at least a series of selected echo signals;
compare the size of the receive aperture with a predetermined number of reconstruction channels at each imaging point, wherein the size of the receive aperture is expressed as a number or active transducer elements; and
pass the selected echo signals from selected receive channels of the one or more transducer elements to a reconstruction processor if the size of the receive aperture is not greater than the number of reconstruction channels.
2. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 1 , wherein the size of the receive aperture is based on the line and the depth of an imaging point in a region of interest in the medium of interest.
3. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 1 , wherein the reconstruction processor further produces an ultrasound image.
4. An ultrasound reconstruction unit having a receive aperture, comprising:
a transducer array comprising one or more transducer elements, the one or more transducer elements configured to receive ultrasound signals from a medium of interest and convert the received ultrasound signals into echo signals;
a multiplexer configured to selectively couple the one or more transducer elements in the transducer array and pass selected echo signals; and
a receive aperture control engine configured to:
adaptively determine a set of reconstruction signals based on at least a series of selected echo signals;
compare the size of the receive aperture with a predetermined number of reconstruction channels at each imaging point, wherein the reconstruction channels are determined in part by a processing power of the ultrasound reconstruction unit; and
pass the selected echo signals from selected receive channels of the one or more transducer elements to a reconstruction processor if the size of the receive aperture is not greater than the number of reconstruction channels.
5. An ultrasound reconstruction unit having a receive aperture, comprising:
a transducer array comprising one or more transducer elements, the one or more transducer elements configured to receive ultrasound signals from a medium of interest and convert the received ultrasound signals into echo signals;
a multiplexer configured to selectively couple the one or more transducer elements in the transducer array and pass selected echo signals; and
a receive aperture control engine configured to:
adaptively determine a set of reconstruction signals based on at least a series of selected echo signals;
compare the size of the receive aperture with a predetermined number of reconstruction channels at each imaging point, wherein the reconstruction channels are determined in part by a frame rate requirement of the ultrasound reconstruction unit; and
pass the selected echo signals from selected receive channels of the one or more transducer elements to a reconstruction processor if the size of the receive aperture is not greater than the number of reconstruction channels.
6. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 1 , wherein the reconstruction processor is further configured to product in-phase and quadrature signals.
7. An ultrasound reconstruction unit having a receive aperture, comprising:
a transducer array comprising one or more transducer elements, wherein the size of the receive aperture is expressed as a number or active transducer elements, the one or more transducer elements configured to receive ultrasound signals from a medium of interest and convert the received ultrasound signals into echo signals;
a multiplexer configured to selectively couple the one or more transducer elements in the transducer array and pass selected echo signals; and
a receive aperture control engine configured to:
adaptively determine a set of reconstruction signals based on at least the selected echo signals;
compare the size of the receive aperture with a predetermined number of reconstruction channels at each imaging point and preprocess the selected echo signals to produce reconstructions signals that are equal in number to the number of reconstruction channels if the size of the receive aperture is greater than the number of reconstruction channels; and
output the reconstruction signals for further processing by the reconstruction processor.
8. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 7 , wherein the size of the receive aperture is based on the line and the depth of an imaging point in a region of interest in the medium of interest.
9. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 7 , wherein the reconstruction processor further produces an ultrasound image.
10. An ultrasound reconstruction unit having a receive aperture, comprising:
a transducer array comprising one or more transducer elements, the one or more transducer elements configured to receive ultrasound signals from a medium of interest and convert the received ultrasound signals into echo signals;
a multiplexer configured to selectively couple the one or more transducer elements in the transducer array and pass selected echo signals; and
a receive aperture control engine configured to:
adaptively determine a set of reconstruction signals based on at least the selected echo signals;
compare the size of the receive aperture with a predetermined number of reconstruction channels at each imaging point, wherein the reconstruction channels are determined in part by a processing power of the ultrasound reconstruction unit;
preprocess the selected echo signals to produce reconstructions signals that are equal in number to the number of reconstruction channels if the size of the receive aperture is greater than the number of reconstruction channels; and
output the reconstruction signals for further processing by the reconstruction processor.
11. An ultrasound reconstruction unit having a receive aperture, comprising:
a transducer array comprising one or more transducer elements, the one or more transducer elements configured to receive ultrasound signals from a medium of interest and convert the received ultrasound signals into echo signals;
a multiplexer configured to selectively couple the one or more transducer elements in the transducer array and pass selected echo signals; and
a receive aperture control engine configured to:
adaptively determine a set of reconstruction signals based on at least the selected echo signals;
compare the size of the receive aperture with a predetermined number of reconstruction channels at each imaging point, wherein the reconstruction channels are determined in part by a frame rate requirement of the ultrasound reconstruction unit, and preprocess the selected echo signals to produce reconstructions signals that are equal in number to the number of reconstruction channels if the size of the receive aperture is greater than the number of reconstruction channels; and
output the reconstruction signals for further processing by the reconstruction processor.
12. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 7 , wherein the reconstruction processor is further configured to product in-phase and quadrature signals.
13. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 7 , wherein preprocessing the selected echo signals comprises grouping qualified channels in the receive aperture by taking a weighted sum of each group.
14. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 13 , wherein a group of qualified channels comprises a pair of adjacent channels.
15. An ultrasound reconstruction unit having a receive aperture, comprising:
a transducer array comprising one or more transducer elements, the one or more transducer elements configured to receive ultrasound signals from a medium of interest and convert the received ultrasound signals into echo signals;
a multiplexer configured to selectively couple the one or more transducer elements in the transducer array and pass selected echo signals; and
a receive aperture control engine configured to:
adaptively determine a set of reconstruction signals based on at least the selected echo signals;
compare the size of the receive aperture with a predetermined number of reconstruction channels at each imaging point, wherein a group of qualified channels comprises channels with symmetry with respect to an imaging point;
preprocess the selected echo signals to produce reconstructions signals that are equal in number to the number of reconstruction channels if the size of the receive aperture is greater than the number of reconstruction channels, wherein preprocessing the selected echo signals comprises grouping qualified channels in the receive aperture by taking a weighted sum of each group; and
output the reconstruction signals for further processing by the reconstruction processor.
16. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 7 , wherein preprocessing the selected echo signals comprises skipping echo signals for certain channels in the receive aperture.
17. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 7 , wherein the receive aperture control engine is further configured to identify groups of qualified channels by determining whether a phase difference between echo signals for a group of channels is less than a specified value.
18. An ultrasound reconstruction unit configured to:
receive selected echo signals from a plurality of transducer elements, the ultrasound reconstruction unit comprising a receive aperture control engine configured to use selected echo signals to adaptively determine a set of reconstruction signals and process the set of reconstruction signals to produce in-phase and quadrature signals.
19. The ultrasound reconstruction unit of claim 18 , wherein the receive aperture control engine is further configured to adaptively determine a number of reconstruction signals by comparing a number of channels of a receive aperture with a number of reconstruction channels.