Ultrasound reception apparatus applying adaptive reception beamforming to synthesis processing and ultrasound reception method applying adaptive reception beamforming to synthesis processing
An ultrasound reception apparatus according to one embodiment includes signal processing circuitry. The signal processing circuitry is configured to: acquire first reflected wave data for each channel, the first reflected wave data being generated by chronologically transmitting and receiving ultrasound waves in different transmission directions; perform phasing processing corresponding to a transmission path for each channel with respect to each piece of the first reflected wave data, and generates second reflected wave data; perform addition processing with respect to a plurality of transmission directions for each channel by using the second reflected wave data, and generates third reflected wave data subjected to transmit aperture synthesis; and perform adaptive reception beamforming on the third reflected wave data.
1 . An ultrasound reception apparatus applying adaptive reception beamforming to synthesis processing, the apparatus comprising:
signal processing circuitry configured to:
sequentially acquire a plurality of pieces of first reflected wave data for each channel, the plurality of pieces of first reflected wave data indicating reflected waves corresponding to ultrasound waves transmitted at a plurality of timings, respectively;
perform delay correction processing corresponding to a transmission path of the reflected waves with respect to the plurality of pieces of first reflected wave data, thereby generating, for each channel, a plurality of pieces of second reflected wave data for the plurality of timings;
perform synthesis processing with respect to the plurality of pieces of second reflected wave data, thereby generating one piece of third reflected wave data; and
perform adaptive reception beamforming on the one piece of third reflected wave data, thereby acquiring one piece of fourth reflected wave data.
2 . The ultrasound reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is further configured to calculate an evaluation value for coherency between the plurality of pieces of the second reflected wave data.
3 . The ultrasound reception apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is configured to multiply the one piece of fourth reflected wave data that is generated by performing the adaptive reception beamforming by a value that is based on the evaluation value, thereby acquiring fifth reflected wave data.
4 . The ultrasound reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is further configured to extract a harmonic component from the plurality of pieces of first reflected wave data, and
the signal processing circuitry is configured to generate, for each channel, the plurality of pieces of second reflected wave data by performing the delay correction processing on the harmonic component extracted.
5 . The ultrasound reception apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is configured to extract the harmonic by adding the plurality of pieces of first reflected wave data indicating the reflected waves corresponding to the ultrasound waves transmitted at the plurality of timings, respectively and another piece of the first reflected wave data indicating a reflected wave corresponding to a phase-modulated ultrasound wave that is obtained by modulating a phase of one of the ultrasound waves.
6 . The ultrasound reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is configured to acquire the plurality of pieces of first reflected wave data corresponding to the ultrasound waves that are one of a plane wave and a spherical diffused wave.
7 . The ultrasound reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the adaptive reception beamforming performed by the signal processing circuitry is Minimum Variance beamforming.
8 . The ultrasound reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the adaptive reception beamforming performed by the signal processing circuitry is Delay Multiply and Sum beamforming.
9 . An ultrasound wave reception method applying adaptive reception beamforming to synthesis processing, the method comprising:
sequentially acquiring a plurality of pieces of first reflected wave data for each channel, the plurality of pieces of first reflected wave data indicating reflected waves corresponding to ultrasound waves transmitted at a plurality of timings, respectively;
generating, for each channel, a plurality of pieces of second reflected wave data for the plurality of timings by performing delay correction processing corresponding to a transmission path of the reflected waves with respect to the plurality of pieces of first reflected wave data;
generating one piece of third reflected wave data by performing synthesis processing with respect to the plurality of pieces of second reflected wave data; and
acquiring one piece of fourth reflected wave data by performing adaptive reception beamforming on the one piece of third reflected wave data.