Patent ID: 7322936

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus, comprising: a two-dimensional array transducer for forming a three-dimensional image, the two-dimensional array transducer having a plurality of transducer elements arranged two-dimensionally; a switching section for defining a plurality of sub arrays with respect to the plurality of transducer elements, and for defining a plurality groups for each sub-array and outputting a group receiving signal for each of the groups; and a receiving processing section for processing a plurality of group receiving signals output from the switching section; wherein the switching section changes a sub array pattern of each sub array in the array transducer in accordance with a beam forming condition, and changes a group shape pattern of each group in each of the sub arrays, a pattern variable region is defined for each sub array to thereby define a plurality of pattern variable regions on the array transducer, the pattern variable region for each sub array corresponds to a region formed by combining a plurality of sub array shape patterns concerning each sub array, and the plurality of pattern variable regions partially overlap with each other.