Patent ID: 11860273
Assignee: DECISION SCIENCES MEDICAL COMPANY, LLC
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  A | IPC A  G

Claim 7:
8. An acoustic probe to interface a body structure of a biological subject, including:
one or more transducer segments comprising an array of transducer elements; and
a probe controller in communication with the array of transducer elements to enable selection of a first subset of transducer elements of the array to transmit acoustic waveforms, and selection of a second subset of transducer elements of the array to receive returned acoustic waveforms,
wherein the first subset of transducer elements are arranged to transmit spatially and temporally encoded acoustic waveforms toward a target volume in the biological subject and the second subset of transducer elements are arranged to receive the returned acoustic waveforms that return from at least part of the target volume, and
wherein the acoustic probe is operable to transmit the acoustic waveforms on the first subset of transducer elements and the second subset of transducer elements in accordance with a predetermined transmit delay pattern that spatially and temporally encodes transmit waveforms such that each of the returned acoustic waveforms is distinguishable from another, such that the returned acoustic waveforms are decodable by isolating transmission of the acoustic waveforms transmitted by the first subset of transducer elements on reception by the second subset of transducer elements that correspond to a set of image points scattered from the target volume in the biological subject,
wherein the predetermined transmit delay pattern comprises a set of random time delays,
wherein the set of random time delays corresponds to a uniform distribution of random values within a range spanning from zero to a maximum tolerated standoff distance of the array of transducer elements.