Patent ID: 6504288
Filing Date: 2003-01-07
Classification: A61B,G01S,G10K,H01Q

Abstract:
A method of imaging human breasts including forming broad band acoustic or microwave beams which encompasses:providing a breast conforming array head: said breast conforming array head having a configuration selected from the group consisting of a hemispherical cup, a shape-conforming cup, and concentric rings of different size; providing a multi-channel individually addressable array of elements on the array head to form arbitrary voltage signals as a function of time; providing array excitation by operatively connecting drive electronics to the array of elements for creating and detecting acoustic and microwave fields, the operatively connecting of the drive electronics being carried out by providing source signal generators connected to each of the elements of the array, the providing of the source signal generators being carried out using a high-speed memory operatively connected to a read-out controller to release a byte at a time to a byte distributor operatively connected to digital-to-analog converters, and controlling the read-out controller and the byte distributor by a synchronized clock, providing source signal processing; and providing received signal postprocessing.