Transmit beamforming in 3-dimensional ultrasound

1. An ultrasound system comprising:

a probe comprising a two-dimensional (2D) array of transducer elements that form an aperture having a plurality of receive elements that are configured to receive ultrasound signals, the transducer elements forming at least one transmit sub-aperture that is configured to be interconnected with a fixed group of the transducer elements within the aperture;

transmitters for generating electrical transmit signals;

at least one transmit sub-aperture processor (tx SAP) configured to map the transducer elements within the fixed group of the transducer elements to the transmitters in a transmit configuration based on a beam steering direction, the at least one tx SAP comprising a cross-point switch:

system channels interconnected with the transmitters and the cross-point switch for conveying the transmit signals therebetween; and

a SAP controller configured to control the cross-point switch to select the transducer elements within the fixed group of the transducer elements to be driven by one of the system channels based on the transmit configuration, wherein individual transducer elements within the fixed group of the transducer elements may be connected to any of the system channels using the cross-point switch.

2. The ultrasound system of claim 1 , further comprising

a processor configured to determine delays associated with each of the transducer elements within the fixed group of the transducer elements, the delays being based at least on the beam steering direction, the at least one tx SAP being configured to assign at least one of the transducer elements within the fixed group of transducer elements to one channel of the system channels based on the delays.

3. The ultrasound system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of receive elements are configured to form receive sub-apertures, the at least one transmit sub-aperture comprising at least two adjacent receive sub-apertures.

4. The ultrasound system of claim 1 , wherein the SAP controller is configured to divide the receive elements of the at least one transmit sub-aperture into two element groups that are oriented with respect to each other by one of horizontally, vertically and diagonally, the two element groups forming different transmit configurations for steering the transmit signals in different directions.

5. The ultrasound system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one cross-point switch has switches, wherein each switch is dedicated to a single one of the transducer elements within the fixed group of the transducer elements.

6. The ultrasound system of claim 1 , further comprising

a processor configured to determine a maximum delay and a minimum delay based at least on the beam steering direction and delays associated with the transducer elements within the fixed group of transducer elements, the processor further configured to determine intermediate delays based on at least the maximum and minimum delays, the processor assigning one of the maximum delay, the minimum delay and the intermediate delays to each of the system channels.

7. The ultrasound system of claim 1 , further comprising:

receivers for receiving electrical receive signals;

preamplifiers for receiving the receive signals from the cross-point switch, the system channels further configured to convey the receive signals between the preamplifiers and the receivers.

8. An ultrasound system comprising:

a probe comprising a 2D array of transducer elements that form an aperture having a plurality of receive elements that are configured to receive ultrasound signals;

at least one configurable cross-point switch having first and second sides, the at least one configurable cross-point switch being interconnected with a fixed group of the transducer elements on a first side, the fixed group of the transducer elements forming a transmit sub-aperture configured to transmit ultrasound signals;

system channels configured to convey at least the transmit ultrasound signals, the system channels interconnecting with the at least one configurable cross-point switch on the second side, the at least one configurable cross-point switch comprising switches, wherein each switch is dedicated to a single one of the transducer elements within the fixed group of the transducer elements, the at least one configurable cross-point switch connecting at least one of the transducer elements with one of the system channels; and

a sub-aperture processor (SAP) controller configured to control the at least one configurable cross-point switch to map each of the transducer elements within the fixed group of transducer elements to the system channels in a transmit configuration based on delays associated with ultrasound transmit signals.

9. The ultrasound system of claim 8 , wherein the transmit sub-aperture is divided into at least first and second receive sub-apertures, wherein the first and second receive sub-apertures comprise first and second predetermined subsets of transducer elements from within the fixed group of transducer elements for receiving the ultrasound signals.

10. The ultrasound system of claim 8 , wherein the transmit sub-aperture is divided into at least first and second receive sub-apertures, wherein the first and second receive sub-apertures comprise first and second predetermined subsets of transducer elements from within the fixed group of transducer elements, wherein the at least one configurable cross-point switch is further configured to map the first and second predetermined subsets of transducer elements to a first system channel and a second system channel, respectively, from within the system channels for receiving the ultrasound signals.

11. The ultrasound system of claim 8 , wherein the SAP controller is further configured to determine a maximum delay and a minimum delay based at least on a delay associated with each of the transducer elements, the SAP controller further configured to determine intermediate delays based on at least the maximum and minimum delays, the SAP controller further configured to assign one of the maximum delay, the minimum delay and the intermediate delays to each of the system channels.

12. The ultrasound system of claim 8 , further comprising:

at least one receive SAP for processing the received ultrasound signals detected by the plurality of receive elements;

a receive SAP comprising the at least one receive SAP; and

a transmit SAP die comprising the at least one configurable cross-point switch and further comprising input and output switches, the input switches inputting the receive ultrasound signals to the at least one receive SAP and the output switches receiving output signals from the at least one receive SAP.

13. The ultrasound system of claim 8 , wherein the at least one configurable cross-point switch comprises a greater number of the switches than the number of transducer elements within the fixed group of the transducer elements.

14. An ultrasound system comprising:

a probe comprising a two-dimensional (2D) array of transducer elements that form an aperture having a plurality of receive elements that are configured to receive ultrasound signals, the transducer elements forming at least one transmit sub-aperture that is configured to be interconnected with a fixed group of the transducer elements within the aperture;

transmitters for generating electrical transmit signals;

at least one cross-point switch for interconnecting the fixed group of transducer elements and the transmitters; and

system channels interconnected with the transmitters and the cross-point switch for conveying the transmit signals therebetween, wherein at least one transducer element within the fixed group of the transducer elements is connected to a different system channel than at least one other transducer element within the fixed group of the transducer elements using the cross-point switch.

15. The ultrasound system of claim 1 , wherein the SAP controller is located inside the probe.

16. The ultrasound system of claim 1 , wherein the SAP controller is located outside of the probe.

17. The ultrasound system of claim 1 , wherein the SAP controller is implemented in software or hardware or a combination thereof.