Patent ID: 7125384

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including: a plurality of transducer elements arrayed as an ultrasonic probe; a plurality of transmission driving circuits for driving said transducer elements; a beam former for delaying and adding signals received by said transducer elements; a cross point switch for distributing the signals received by said transducer elements to any of a plurality of input terminals of said beam former; and a connection setting unit for setting said cross point switch so as to connect by integrating the received signals of said plurality of transducer elements near a center of an aperture of said ultrasonic probe and inputting to one terminal of said beam former and so as not to connect at least one of the transducer elements at an end of said aperture to said beam former, wherein said connection setting unit includes: a unit for storing two or more connection pattern data between said transducer element and said beam former; a unit for an operator to select a display depth; a unit for selecting one of said connection pattern data in accordance with the display depth selected by said operator; and a unit for setting said cross point switch in accordance with the selected connection pattern data, and wherein one of said plurality of connection pattern data is selected such that a beam shape at said selected display depth becomes optimal.