Patent ID: 8235906

Claim:
A method for producing an image using an ultrasound system, the steps comprising: a) acquiring ultrasound data by: i) producing a plurality of ultrasound beams during a given shot directed at an object being imaged, wherein the beams are reflected by features within the imaged object to produce echoes; ii) measuring the echoes using a transducer having a plurality of elements, wherein the measured echo signals include overlapped components from echoes reflected from multiple spatial locations within the imaged object; iii) repeating steps i) and ii) to scan a region of interest of the object; b) analyzing variations of the measured echo signals across the plurality of transducer elements to separate the overlapped echo signal components by employing a spatial decoding matrix that relates the spatial locations from which echoes were reflected to the variations of the measured echo signal between each of the transducer elements; and c) producing an image of the object from the separated signal components.