Patent ID: 7597665

Claim:
A medical system comprising: a carrier; a multiplicity of electromechanical transducers mounted to said carrier; energization componentry operatively connected to a first plurality of said transducers for supplying same with electrical signals of at least one pre-established ultrasonic frequency to produce first pressure waves in the patient; and a control unit operatively connected to said energization componentry for operating same to produce said first pressure waves in the patient, said control unit including an electronic analyzer operatively connected to a second plurality of said transducers for performing electronic 3D volumetric data acquisition and imaging of internal tissues of the patient by analyzing signals generated by said second plurality of said transducers in response to second pressure waves produced at internal tissues of the patient in response to said first pressure waves, said control unit being operatively connected to said second plurality of said transducers to gather and organize data from said second plurality of said transducers so that said second plurality of transducers define a plurality of data gathering apertures, said control unit including circuitry for coherent aperture combining to coherently combine structural data from the respective apertures, said carrier including a plurality of rigid substrates each disposable in pressure-wave transmitting contact with the patient, each of said substrates carrying a respective plurality of transducers, each of said substrates carrying at least one of said second plurality of said transducers so that each of said substrates represents a respective one of said data gathering apertures, said substrates being movably connected to one another, said circuitry including position determination or calibration componentry determining relative positions and orientations of said substrates relative to one another for use in the coherent aperture combining, said position determination or calibration componentry including a multiplicity of point scatterers, said position determination or calibration componentry further including programmed componentry operatively connected to said energization means for periodically scanning said point scatterers with first ultrasonic pressure waves and calculating instantaneous positions of said point scatterers as scanned by each of said substrates using second ultrasonic pressure waves produced at said point scatterers in response to said first ultrasonic pressure waves.