George A. Brock-Fisher

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERFACING AN ULTRASOUND TRANSDUCER WITH A COMPUTING DEVICE PERFORMING BEAMFORMING PROCESSING

A beamformer for an ultrasound imaging system is provided, the ultrasound imaging system having a probe having a transducer array for transmitting and receiving analog signals, and a personal computer. The beamformer includes a beamformer software application module configured for execution by the computing device for performing at least partial beamforming processing on digital data transmitted between the transducer array and the computing device, and means for exchanging signals and data between the transducer array and the computing device and performing at least one of A/D and D/A conversions on the exchanged signals and data. In the preferred embodiment, the beamformer further includes a module integrated within architecture of the computing device, wherein the integrated module is preferably Random Access Memory (RAM) included in storage means of the computing device. A method is further provided for performing a transmit beamforming process in an ultrasound system having a computing device and a probe including a transducer array, the method including the steps of performing transmit beamforming processing in the computing device in accordance with transmit settings to generate digital transmit data, storing the digital transmit in the data storage memory, retrieving the digital transmit data from the storage memory, converting the digital transmit data to analog transmit signals, and transmitting the analog transmit signals to the transducer array. A method is further provided for performing a receive beamforming process in an ultrasound system having a computing device including storage memory, an interface module and a probe including a transducer array, the method including the steps of receiving analog signals from the transducer array, converting the analog signals to digital data, storing the digital data in the storage memory, retrieving the digital data from the storage memory, and performing receive beamforming operations on the digital data by the computing device.

Ultrasound image processing employing non-linear tissue response backscatter signals

A method for processing ultrasound signal samples obtains enhanced images of a body structure through use of both harmonic and fundamental image processing. The method includes the steps of first obtaining a first plurality of signal samples from sensed backscatter signals that fall within a range of frequencies about a fundamental frequency of the transmitted ultrasound signal. Next, a second plurality of signal samples are obtained from backscatter signals that fall within a range of frequencies about a harmonic of a transmitted ultrasound signal. Control values are then derived from at least one of the first plurality of signal samples or the second plurality of signal samples. Those control values are then utilized to control the processing of the other of the signal samples to derive an improved ultrasound image. In a preferred embodiment, the control values are derived from the signal samples which result from sensed harmonic backscatter signals. Further, the control values are utilized to alter the processing of the fundamental signal samples (e.g., by variation of applied gain, filter frequency, filter bandwidth, etc.).