Patent ID: 7637871

Claim:
A system for acquiring spectral information with a multi-dimensional array of elements, the system comprising: a transducer assembly having a probe housing and a connector housing electrically connected by a cable, the multi-dimensional array of elements being within the probe housing, wherein the multi-dimensional array of elements comprises elements distributed over a multidimensional grid in a planar or curved surface, the transducer assembly being separate from and releasably connectable with an imaging system; a steered continuous wave beamformer at least partly in the transducer assembly, the steered continuous wave beamformer connected with first elements, during receive operation, separate from second elements used for transmit operation; a pulsed wave beamformer at least partly in the transducer assembly, both the pulsed wave and continuous wave beamformers having receive channels, the receive channels of the continuous wave beamformer having a greater bandwidth and delays with a lesser resolution than the receive channels of the pulsed wave beamformer; dedicated signal paths from the multi-dimensional array to the steered continuous wave beamformer where the dedicated signal paths are configured for use by the steered continuous wave beamformer for reception; and shared signal paths other than the dedicated signal paths, wherein the shared signal paths are configured for use by the steered continuous wave beamformer for steered continuous wave transmissions and by the pulsed wave beamformer for pulsed wave transmission and reception.