Patent ID: 7291108

Claim:
An ultrasonic transmission/reception apparatus comprising: first and second ultrasonic transmission means for operating in accordance with applied drive signals, respectively; drive-signal generation means for generating the drive signals which are respectively applied to said first and second ultrasonic transmission means; control means for controlling said drive-signal generation means so that a first ultrasonic wave may be transmitted from the first ultrasonic transmission means while its frequency is being swept, and that a second ultrasonic wave may be transmitted from the second ultrasonic transmission means while its frequency is being swept with a predetermined difference frequency held relative to a frequency of the first ultrasonic wave; first reception means for receiving an ultrasonic echo caused by reflection of the first or second ultrasonic wave in an object to be inspected, so as to output a first detection signal; second reception means for receiving an acoustic wave or an ultrasonic wave which has been generated from a predetermined region within the object by projecting the first and second ultrasonic waves toward the region, and which has a frequency corresponding to a difference frequency between frequencies of the first and second ultrasonic waves, so as to output a second detection signal; first signal processing means for subjecting the first detection signal outputted from said first reception means, to pulse compression processing as signal processing; second signal processing means for subjecting the second detection signal outputted from said second reception means, to predetermined signal processing; and image data generation means for generating image data representative of an ultrasonic image, on the basis of the first and second detection signals subjected to the signal processing by said first and second signal processing means.