Patent ID: 7874988
Filing Date: 2011-01-25
Classification: A61B,G01S

Abstract:
1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for forming an acoustic transmission field to an object to be examined, comprising: a plurality of transducer elements configured to transmit ultrasound to the object; a reference signal generation unit configured to output a continuous wave signal so as to generate the ultrasound; a reference condition generation unit configured to generate reference conditions including delay time and driving amplitude to drive the plurality of transducer elements; a transmission condition generation unit configured to generate a transmission delay time condition and a transmission driving amplitude condition to form an acoustic transmission field for simultaneous and parallel reception based on the reference conditions; a delay time setting unit configured to set delay time of driving signals based on the continuous wave signal provided from the reference signal generation unit, the driving signals being provided to the plurality of transducer elements; a driving amplitude setting unit configured to set driving amplitude of the driving signals based on the continuous wave signal provided from the reference signal generation unit; an A/D converter configured to A/D convert signals obtained from the plurality of transducer elements based on reflected ultrasound received from a plurality of directions by the transmission of the ultrasound; a channel selection unit configured to select a plurality and different sets of channel signals from a plurality of channel signals outputted from the A/D converter; a plurality of beam formers configured to give the delay time and the driving amplitude provided from the reference condition generation unit respectively to the plurality of sets of channel signals selected by the channel selection unit, each of the beam formers adding the delay time and the driving amplitude given the channel signals; and an image data generation unit configured to generate image data to display an image, wherein the transmission condition generation unit is configured to output the transmission delay time condition and the transmission driving amplitude condition to the delay time setting unit and the driving amplitude setting unit, which are obtained by the following expressions, respectively, where “m” is a number of one of the plurality of transducer elements, τ(m) is the transmission delay time condition, τ