Patent ID: 7993270

Claim:
A digital receive-focusing apparatus for use in an ultrasound imaging system comprising: a plurality of channel modules responsive to ultrasound channel signals, and configured to produce a receive-focused beam, each of said plurality of channel modules including, an analogue multiplexer configured to multiplex ultrasound signals originating from at least two ultrasound channels; an analogue-to-digital converter configured to convert said multiplexed ultrasound signals into digital signals; a first delay configured to receive said digital signals and to output the digital signals at a different time based on different amounts of delay pre-calculated based on a switching rate at the analogue multiplexer; a compensator configured to compensate said digital signal by filtering and time-delaying said digital signal; a second delay configured to coarsely delay said compensated digital signals; a multiplier configured to multiply said delayed digital signals by apodization coefficients provided by an apodization generator; and an adder configured to add said multiplied digital data.