Patent ID: 8002703

Claim:
An ultrasonic imaging device for transmitting/receiving ultrasonic pulse to/from a living body in which microbubbles for contrast are introduced, and forming a contrast image of the inside of the living body, comprising: a transmit beamformer for generating a transmit pulse, said transmit beamformer including a D/A converter and a non-linear amplifier; a receive beamformer for generating a time-series reception echo signal with adding receive signals, to each of which a delay time is given for generating receiving sensitivity having directivity; an adder for summing the time-series reception echo signals; and a transmit/receive sequence controller for controlling the transmit beamformer and the receive beamformer; wherein in a first sequence, the transmit/receive sequence controller controls the transmit beamformer and the receive beamformer to perform transmitting/receiving operations N times (N=an integer of three or greater) by controlling a sampling frequency of the transmit pulse being an integer-multiple of 3 with respect to a central frequency of frequency components of the transmit pulse, and N pieces of transmission pulse waves having a common envelope signal and different waveforms under a transmission/reception wave focus condition, and controlling carrier waves of the transmission pulse waves so as to vary in phase by 360° /N from one wave to a next wave, and receiving returned ultrasonic waves as N pieces of the time-series reception echo signals; and wherein said adder sums the N pieces of the time-series reception echo signals so as to output an output signal as a signal indicative of a spatial distribution of the microbubbles.