Patent ID: 9165552
Filing Date: 2015-10-20
Classification: G01S,G10K

Abstract:
1. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic receiver having a plurality of receiving elements for receiving ultrasonic waves reflected or generated in an area of a subject through a medium having a sound velocity different from a sound velocity of the area; a receive beam former which forms a receive beam signal by performing delay control on received signals of receive channels corresponding to at least a part of said receiving elements of said ultrasonic receiver, according to a propagation time from a focal point position of the receive beam to said receiving element; and an image processor which generates an image using the receive beam signal, wherein said receive beam former sequentially calculates, for one of the receiving channels, propagation time values for a plurality of focal points by repeating processing for adding a change of propagation time value corresponding to a change amount of depth of focal point to an already calculated propagation time value to determine a propagation time value for a next focal point, wherein the repeat processing can be independently executed for each of said receive channels, and said receive beam former calculates the propagation time values in parallel for at least a part of said receive channels, and said receive beam former calculates the change of propagation time value using a recurrence relation and based on the change amount of depth of focal point, a recurrence parameter ξ