Patent ID: 8172755

Claim:
A multichannel beamforming apparatus for an ultrasonic imaging system which includes a memory for storing sampled data for each channel, each channel configured to provide block data on the basis of an integer part of a delay value, comprising: a plurality of demultiplexers each associated with a different channel and configured to receive the block data from the corresponding channel, each of the plurality of demultiplexers being further configured to select one of a plurality of addresses based on a fine delay value of the corresponding channel; a plurality of block adders each associated with one of the plurality of addresses configured to be selected by the plurality of demultiplexers, each of the plurality of block adders configured to sum data of a plurality of the different channels output by a plurality of the selecting demultiplexers, and further configured to output a signal corresponding to summed data; and at least one fractional delay filter associated with at least one fine delay value and configured to be coupled to at least one of the plurality of block adders, the fractional delay filter being configured to filter the signal output by the at least one of the plurality of block adders based on the associated fine delay value.