Patent ID: 7819805

Claim:
An ultrasound imaging apparatus, comprising: a plurality of transmitters configured to transmit acoustic energy to an object in a medium such that said acoustic energy becomes scattered; a plurality of receivers configured to receive said scattered energy and in response produce respective analog echo signals, each of said analog signals comprising substantial spectral frequency components above a frequency F/2 and comprising substantial nonnegative spectral frequency components below or at said frequency of F/2; a sampling module configured to sample said analog echo signals at a frequency of F, said sampling producing a respective plurality of digital echo signals; a combining module configured to combine said plurality of digital echo signals, each of said digital echo signals being offset by time with respect to another of said digital echo signals, so as to produce a combined digital signal comprising a sequence of samples having a sample frequency exceeding F; and an image producing module configured to produce an image pixel of said object based at least in part on said combined digital signal.