Patent ID: 9649090
Date: 2017-05-16
CPC Classifications: A61B,B06B,G01S

Claim:
1. An ultrasound diagnostic imaging apparatus which uses pulse inversion, comprising: an ultrasound probe which outputs transmission ultrasound toward a subject due to a pulse signal being input and which outputs a received signal by receiving reflected ultrasound from the subject; a transmission circuit which makes the ultrasound probe generate the transmission ultrasound by outputting a pulse signal whose drive waveform is formed of rectangular waves; and a processor which generates ultrasound image data using pulse inversion, wherein the transmission circuit outputs, as the pulse signal, a first pulse signal and a second pulse signal on a same scanning line with a time interval therebetween, wherein a correlation coefficient of frequency components of the first pulse signal and the second pulse signal is 0.85 or greater and less than 1 in a transmission and reception bandwidth at −20 dB of the ultrasound probe, wherein the processor combines, by pulse inversion, a first received signal which is obtained from the reflected ultrasound of the transmission ultrasound generated by the first pulse signal and a second received signal which is obtained from the reflected ultrasound of the transmission ultrasound generated by the second pulse signal, such that harmonic components are emphasized, a majority part of fundamental wave components are canceled, and a part of the fundamental wave components which is not canceled by combining the first received signal and the second received signal remains as a remainder component, in accordance with the correlation coefficient of the frequency components of the first pulse signal and the second pulse signal; and wherein the processor generates the ultrasound image data using the emphasized harmonic components and the remainder component.