Patent ID: 6059730
Filing Date: 2000-05-09
Classification: G01S

Abstract:
A ultrasonic diagnosis device comprising at least a probe constituted by arrayed elements disposed at a predetermined position which transmit ultrasonic pulses into a body to be inspected and receive the same therefrom, a time delay unit which provides a time delay to received wave signals from the respective elements of the probe, and an adder unit which forms ultrasonic beam by adding output signals from the time delay unit, characterized in that the ultrasonic diagnosis device further comprising,a phase difference computing unit which computes phase differences between the output signals from said time delay unit;a correlation factor computing unit which computes correlation factors between the output signals from said time delay unit;a computing region input unit which designates a portion of the output signals as an object of the computations of the phase differences and of the correlation factors;a phase difference storage unit and a correlation factor storage unit which respectively store the results of the phase difference computation and the correlation factor computation; anda correlation factor comparing unit which compares an output value of said correlation factor computing unit with a stored value in said correlation factor storage unit and, when the output value of said correlation factor computing unit is larger than the stored value in said correlation factor storage unit, causes said phase difference storage unit and said correlation factor storage unit to store respectively the output value of said phase difference computing unit and the output value of said correlation factor computing unit, and further characterized in that, at the moment when the phase difference computation and the correlation factor computation for the portion of the output signals designated by said computing region input unit have been completed, said time delay unit is controlled by making use of the output value stored in said phase difference storage unit.