Patent ID: 11950962
Assignee: PHILIPS IMAGE GUIDED THERAPY CORPORATION
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. An ultrasound imaging system, comprising:
a transducer array; and
a processor configured for communication with the transducer array, wherein the processor is configured to:
activate the transducer array to obtain a plurality of signals, wherein the plurality of signals comprises a first portion of signals associated with a first subaperture and a second portion of signals associated with a second subaperture;
generate an image based on the plurality of signals;
generate a grating lobe image layer based on a first relationship comprising the first portion of signals associated with the first subaperture and the second portion of signals associated with the second subaperture;
generate a noise image layer based on a second relationship comprising the first portion of signals associated with the first subaperture and the second portion of signals associated with the second subaperture;
generate a clutter reduction mask based on a third relationship comprising the grating lobe image layer and the noise image layer;
apply the clutter reduction mask to the image to generate a masked image; and
output the masked image to a display in communication with the processor,

wherein the grating lobe image layer comprises an image layer formed of signals representative of a grating lobe artifact in the image and not signals representative of noise in the image,
wherein the noise image layer comprises an image layer formed of signals representative of noise in the image and not signals representative of the grating lobe artifact in the image.