Patent ID: 9380993
Filing Date: 2016-07-05
CPC Classification: A61B,G01S

Claim Text:
1. An ultrasound system, comprising: a transmitting unit configured to form a transmit signal; an ultrasound probe comprising a plurality of transducer elements and configured to receive the transmit signal from the transmitting unit, convert the transmit signal into an ultrasound signal, transmit the ultrasound signal to a target object, receive a respective echo signal from the target object in each of the plurality of transducer elements, and form a respective receive signal based on the respective echo signal in each of the plurality of transducer elements; a receiving unit comprising a plurality of inputs each associated with a respective transducer element of the plurality of transducer elements and each configured to receive the respective receive signal from the respective transducer element of the plurality of transducer elements of the ultrasound probe; a plurality of diode bridges each coupled to a respective output of the transmitting unit and a respective transducer element of the ultrasound probe at one end of the diode bridge and coupled to a respective input of the plurality of inputs of the receiving unit at another end of the diode bridge and configured to operate in a first state in which a signal from the one end is blocked from being propagated to the other end or in a second state in which the signal from the one end is allowed to be propagated to the other end; and a control unit configured to: wherein the control unit controls the diode bridges of the plurality of diode bridges to be individually switchable, and wherein the control unit comprises, for each respective diode bridge, first and second switches configured to perform switching between a plus voltage and a minus voltage, wherein the first switch is connected to one terminal of the respective diode bridge through a first diode and the second switch is connected to another terminal of the respective diode bridge through a second diode.