Patent ID: 9146306
Filing Date: 2015-09-29
Classification: A61B,G01S,G10K

Abstract:
1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising: an array transducer divided into a plurality of sub-arrays each containing a plurality of transducer elements; and a sub-array processor connected to each of the plurality of sub-arrays, the sub-array processor configured to execute, for each sub-array, a delay process corresponding to the sub-array based on a delay pattern defining an amount of delay for each of the plurality of the transducer elements belonging to the sub-array, wherein the array transducer is segmented into a plurality of transducer regions each containing a plurality of sub-arrays, and, for each transducer region, said sub-array processor configured to set a common delay pattern for the plurality of sub-arrays belonging to the transducer region, wherein the delay process includes setting an amount of sub-delay having a common slope and an individual amount of main delay for each of the plurality of sub-arrays belonging to a respective transducer region, and summing the amount of the sub-delay and the individual amount of the main delay to obtain the delay pattern that defines the amount of delay as the sum of the amount of the sub-delay and the individual amount of the main delay for each of the plurality of the transducer elements, wherein the common slope is based on a difference in a delay time between the transducer elements contained within each of the sub-arrays over a difference in a sub-array width between the transducer elements contained within each of the sub-arrays.