Ultrasonic imaging device

1. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising:

an ultrasonic probe that includes a plurality of ultrasonic elements transmitting an ultrasonic wave to a subject, receiving an ultrasonic wave from the subject, and outputting received signals; and

a received signal processing circuit that processes the received signals output from the ultrasonic probe,

wherein the received signal processing circuit includes

a summing circuit that sums the received signals for a predetermined imaging point or a plurality of signals obtained by processing the received signals to produce a plurality of summed signals, and

a weighting circuit that obtains a coherence value among the plurality of summed signals, and weights the plurality of signals before being summed in the summing circuit or a signal obtained through summing in the summing circuit, with a weight corresponding to the coherence value, wherein

the weighting circuit weights the coherence value nonlinearly in a predetermined direction in the subject, and weights the plurality of signals before being summed in the summing circuit or the signal obtained through summing in the summing circuit by using the nonlinearly weighted coherence value, and

the weighting circuit includes a distribution operator that calculates a number of the plurality of summed signals having undergone phasing addition in the summing circuit based on shapes of transmitted ultrasonic beams and superimposition of the ultrasonic beams during transmission synthetic aperture imaging.

2. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

the summing circuit is a delay and sum portion, delays the received signals output from the plurality of ultrasonic elements such that the received signals are focused on the predetermined imaging point, and then sums the received signals together.

3. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

the weighting circuit obtains an adaptive weight by using the nonlinearly weighted coherence value, and weights the plurality of signals before being summed in the summing circuit or the signal obtained through summing in the summing circuit by using the adaptive weight.

4. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

the weighting circuit includes a smoothing processor that smooths the plurality of signals summed in the summing circuit, and obtains the weight with which the plurality of signals before being summed in the summing circuit or the signal obtained through summing in the summing circuit is weighted, by using the plurality of signals smoothed by the smoothing processor and the nonlinearly weighted coherence value.

5. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

the summing circuit is a synthetic aperture imaging portion, and sums signals having undergone a plurality of number of times of phasing addition, obtained for a same imaging point through a plurality of transmissions and receptions.

6. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein

the nonlinear weighting is defined based on a distribution of superimposition of ultrasonic waves transmitted in the plurality of transmissions.

7. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein

the weighting circuit uses a value obtained by raising the coherence value to a power of a parameter which is nonlinear in a depth direction, as the nonlinearly weighted coherence value.

8. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

the predetermined direction is a depth direction of the subject.

9. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein

the distribution operator of the weighting circuit obtains a distribution of the number of the plurality of summed signals, and

the weighting circuit further includes a parameter transformer that transforms the distribution of the number of the plurality of summed signals into a parameter distribution by weighting the distribution of the number of the plurality of summed signals nonlinearly in the predetermined direction, wherein

the weighting circuit calculates the weight with which the plurality of signals before being summed in the summing circuit or the signal obtained through summing in the summing circuit is weighted, based on the parameter distribution.

10. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein

the weighting circuit further includes a mask operator that generates a mask for excluding signals outside an ultrasonic beam shape based on the shapes of the transmitted ultrasonic beams, wherein

the received signal processing circuit sums signals inside the ultrasonic beam shape selected by the mask with the summing circuit.

11. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein

the parameter transformer performs calculation of multiplying a weight function by a function indicating the distribution of the number of summed signals by using the weight function which nonlinearly changes according to the magnitude of the number of summed signals, in order to weight the distribution of the number of summed signals nonlinearly in the predetermined direction.

12. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein

the weighting circuit weights an inner region of the ultrasonic beam shape in a plurality of stages, and calculates the number of summed signals having undergone the phasing addition in the summing circuit by taking into consideration the weighting inside the ultrasonic beams.

13. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein

the received signal processing circuit weights signals summed in the summing circuit by using a weight with which the inner region of the ultrasonic beam shape is weighted in a plurality of stages, and then further weights the signals by using the nonlinearly weighted coherence value.