Acoustic beam forming in phased arrays including large numbers of transducer elements

1. A system for focusing acoustic energy towards a target region, comprising:

a transducer array comprising a plurality of “n” transducer elements;

a controller for allocating drive signals to the transducer elements of the transducer array, the controller comprising a plurality of “m” output channels providing sets of drive signals having respective phase shift values, “m” being less than “n,” wherein the controller is configured for assigning phase shift values to each of the transducer elements at least partially based upon at least one treatment parameter; and

a switch coupled to the output channels of the controller and to the transducer elements of the transducer array.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the switch is configured to provide respective sets of drive signals to the respective transducer elements, whereby acoustic energy transmitted by the transducer array may be focused in a desired manner.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the switch comprises a cross-point matrix or a multistage interconnection network (MIN).

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the switch comprises a plurality of “m” inputs coupled to the output channels of the controller, a plurality of “n” outputs coupled to the transducer elements, and a plurality of switching elements for connecting each of the inputs to one or more of the outputs.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the switch is configured for coupling each output channel to more than one of the transducer elements.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one treatment parameter comprises at least one of a desired focal depth, a desired focal zone shape, compensation for tissue aberrations encountered during treatment, compensation for relative impedance variances among the transducer elements, or compensation for geometric inaccuracies in positioning the transducer elements relative to one another on the transducer array.

7. A method for delivering acoustic energy from a transducer array comprising a plurality of “n” transducer elements to a target region, the method comprising:

providing “m” sets of drive signals, each set of drive signals comprising a respective phase shift value selected from “m” phase shift values, “m” being less than “n;”

delivering a first drive signal from the set of drive signals to a first plurality of the transducer elements; and

delivering a second drive signal from the set of drive signals to a second plurality of the transducer elements,

whereby acoustic energy is transmitted by the first and second plurality of transducer elements and focused in a desired manner into the target region, and wherein the first and second drive signals are delivered to the first and second pluralities of transducer elements based upon at least one treatment parameter.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the at least one treatment parameter comprises at least one of a size of the target region, a shape of the target region, the location of the target region, tissue aberrations of tissue between the transducer array and the target region, geometric tolerances of the transducer array, or impedance variations between the transducer elements.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the acoustic energy transmitted by the first plurality of transducer elements is focused at a different location within the target area than the acoustic energy transmitted by the second plurality of transducer elements.