Karl E. Thiele

Ultrasonic transducer system and method for the operation thereof

This invention provides an ultrasonic transducer system which utilizes a reconfigurable delay line to perform a variety of processing functions. In particular, for a preferred embodiment, the delay line utilized to sum the outputs of transducer elements is reconfigurable to provide serial processing of image scan lines while providing parallel processing of Doppler color flow scan lines. More particularly, the echo signals generated in response to the packet of color flow lines utilized to generate color flow information are applied in a predetermined way to two separate portions of the delay line, the portions of the delay line having different delay profiles, the resulting outputs being focussed to slightly different points in the image and thus providing color flow packets for two separate points in response to the transmission of a single packet of color flow lines. This results in a substantial enhancement of the system frame rate. Other possible applications of the reconfigurable delay line in an ultrasonic scanning system are also discussed, and a packet serializer is disclosed which buffers, sequences, and preprocesses the received packet data.