Patent ID: 6926671

Claim:
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic probe having a plurality of oscillators and an aperture for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave; a transmit signal processing circuit for producing a coded signal for driving the ultrasonic probe, the coded signal being expanded in a time axis direction; a receive sub-aperture selection switch for dividing receive signals from the individual oscillators of the ultrasonic probe into a plurality of groups; a plurality of first receive beam formers for phase-aligning and summing a plurality of receive signals outputted from a plurality of oscillators belonging to each of the groups; a decoding filter for compressing, in a time axis direction, a plurality of receive code-sequence signal waveforms outputted from the plurality of first receive beam formers; and a second beam former for summing the compressed signals while controlling delay time among the signals from said first receive beam formers.