Patent ID: 8020445
Filing Date: 2011-09-20
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A three-dimensional ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic transducer in which a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators are disposed in a matrix; a driving element selecting portion connected to the piezoelectric vibrators for selecting a piezoelectric vibrator to emit ultrasonic waves from the ultrasonic transducer by selectively driving a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators; a signal detecting circuit configured to cause an ultrasonic wave emitted by the piezoelectric vibrator selected by a starting element selecting portion to enter an object to be inspected via an acoustic wave propagating medium, to receive the reflected echo from the object to be inspected, and then to detect an electric signal corresponding to the reflected echo; a signal processing portion configured to receive the electric signal corresponding to the detected echo, to subject the electric signal to image synthesizing processing, and to generate three-dimensional imaging data; and a display device configured to receive the three-dimensional imaging data from the signal processing portion and to display the result of the image synthesizing processing, wherein the signal processing portion performs image synthesizing of a state of the object to be inspected on the basis of a detection time with which the signal detecting circuit detects the driving signal of the piezoelectric vibrators as a reflected echo and matrix special arrangement of the piezoelectric vibrators, wherein, in the signal processing portion, image synthesizing of surface shape and internal state of the object to be inspected is performed, for all of the piezoelectric vibrators constituting the ultrasonic transducer, by selecting imaging data from the electric signals of the reflected echo received from the object to be inspected via an acoustic propagating medium, on the basis of two-way ultrasonic wave propagation time data obtained by selecting a pair of pieces of table data corresponding to combination of emission and reception from a plurality pieces of table data in which ultrasonic propagation time of one propagating direction is stored and adding a pair of pieces of the table data to each of three-dimensional imaging mesh elements corresponding to the three-dimensional imaging data in the object to be inspected from the piezoelectric vibrators via the acoustic propagating medium, wherein the signal processing portion is composed of: a boundary setting portion for setting and memorizing the surface shape of the object to be inspected; a table data generating portion for storing the ultrasonic wave propagating times from the piezoelectric vibrator to the three-dimensional imaging mesh elements on the surface of the object to be inspected and inside the object via the acoustic propagating medium and generating table data in which the one-way ultrasonic wave propagating times are stored for all of the piezoelectric vibrators; and an image synthesizing portion for receiving waveform data recorded by a waveform storing memory and the table data via an A/D converter and synthesizing a three-dimensional image, and wherein the table data generating portion of the signal processing portion compresses data of the one-way ultrasonic wave propagation time table by storing the differencing processing result of the depth direction using a fact that the one-way ultrasonic wave propagation time changes continuously in the depth direction.