Patent ID: 8088068

Claim:
A multiple ultrasound beams transmitting and receiving method, the method performed by an ultrasound imaging system including a transmit unit, a receive unit, and a processing unit, the method comprising the steps of: transmitting, using the transmit unit of the ultrasound imaging system, a first wide beam along a first transmit line with a first transmit aperture, wherein the first transmit line is located at a first side of a group of receive lines; receiving, using the receive unit of the ultrasound imaging system, echo of the first wide beam with a first receive aperture and forming a first set of receive beams respectively along the group of receive lines such that the first transmit line is located at a first side of all receive beams formed from the echo of the first wide beam; transmitting, using the transmit unit of the ultrasound imaging system, a second wide beam along a second transmit line with a second transmit aperture, wherein the second transmit line is located at a second side of the group of receive lines; receiving, using the receive unit of the ultrasound imaging system, echo of the second wide beam with a second receive aperture and forming a second set of receive beams respectively along the group of receive lines such that the second transmit line is located at a second side of all receive beams formed from the echo of the second wide beam, wherein the second side of all receive beams formed from the echo of the second wide beam is an opposite side to the first side of all receive beams formed from the echo of the first wide beam; constructing, using the processing unit of the ultrasound imaging system, a full receive aperture by combining the first receive aperture and the second receive aperture, the full receive aperture centered in the area covering the group of receive lines along which the first set of receive beams and the second set of receive beams are formed; and weighting, using the processing unit of the ultrasound imaging system, collinear data along a first receive line of the group of receive lines from both the first set of receive beams and the second set of receive beams, and summing the two weighted data.