Patent ID: 7606114
Filing Date: 2009-10-20
Classification: G01S,G10K

Abstract:
1. A multiple beam acoustic imaging system comprising: an acoustic pulse generator; a frequency steerable acoustic array comprising a plurality of acoustic transducer elements capable of transmitting and/or receiving frequency-steered acoustic beams having a field of view adjustable by frequency band selection, each transducer element being phase shifted with respect to neighboring elements; and an electronics structure electrically connected to the acoustic array that provides a common connection for multiple elements and communication with transmit and/or receiver control systems and electrodes; wherein signals generated by neighboring elements are phase shifted by 90° and the transmit system comprises a two channel arbitrary pulse generator/power amplifier subsystem to generate two signals and transformers to produce the phase-shifted signals from the two signals, and the receive system comprises transformers to combine sets of phase-shifted signals and an analog circuit to combine the resulting phase-shifted signals.