Patent ID: 7156811

Claim:
An ultrasonic imaging method, comprising the steps of: generating at least one ultrasonic pulse by activating a plurality of transmitting electroacoustic transducers of a predetermined array of transmitting transducers which pulse is directed into a region of a body under examination of a body under examination; activating said transmitting transducers in such a manner as to generate a series of unfocused or partly focused scan lines; receiving at a reference straight or curved line or plane or surface, a time-domain signal, consisting of a pulse back-scattered from said region under examination by each of a plurality of receiving transducers of a receiving transducer array; calculating back propagation for said received signal from each of said receiving transducers to at least one straight or curved line or plane or surface through which said signal penetrates said region under examination, which straight or curved line or plane or surface of penetration is at a certain distance from said reference straight or curved line or plane or surface and corresponds to a predetermined penetration depth of said pulse in said region under examination; processing said signals obtained by said back propagation calculation from each of said receiving transducers to obtain display driving signals; and providing a limited number of processing channels, which number is smaller than the total number of available receiving transducers and is an integral submultiple of said total number of available receiving transducers, whereas for each imaging operation, a number of transmission steps is provided in which all of said transmitting transducers are activated, which number is at least equal to the inverse of said submultiple of said processing channels, such that a different group of said receiving transducers are connected, to said processing channels for each transmission step with said groups of receiving transducers being composed of as many receiving transducers as said processing channels are in use.