Patent ID: 8429972

Claim:
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic transducer having a plurality of piezoelectric elements; a transmission control part configured to control transmission timings of a plurality of first piezoelectric elements selected from the plural piezoelectric elements so as to generate a synthesized wave of ultrasonic waves transmitted from the plural first piezoelectric elements which matches an ultrasonic wave transmitted from a predetermined virtual transmission point; a signal detecting circuit configured to detect an electric signal corresponding to an ultrasonic echo transmitted from the plural first piezoelectric elements, reflected by an inspection target, and received by each of a plurality of second piezoelectric elements selected from the plural piezoelectric elements; a first memory part configured to store a transmission time table showing transmission propagation times each taken for the ultrasonic wave to propagate from the predetermined virtual transmission point up to each of a plurality of space meshes into which a space including the inspection target is divided; a second memory part configured to store a reception time table showing reception propagation times each taken for the ultrasonic wave to propagate from each of the plural space meshes up to the plural second piezoelectric elements; a third memory part configured to store an offset time taken for the ultrasonic wave to propagate from a representation piezoelectric element of the plural first piezoelectric elements up to the virtual transmission point; a calculating part configured to calculate a total propagation time of the ultrasonic wave by adding the transmission propagation time, the reception propagation time, and the offset time; and a generating part configured to generate an image corresponding to the inspection target based on the electric signal and the total propagation time.