Patent ID: 8176787

Claim:
An ultrasound imaging device, comprising: a two-dimensional transducer array including a plurality of transducers arranged in rows and columns; a plurality of column busses electrically coupled to the transducers, each column bus communicatively coupling the transducers of a single column to a respective transmit circuitry and a respective receive circuitry, the transmit circuitry configured to generate an output voltage signal for driving the transducers to produce an output ultrasound wave, the receive circuitry configured to receive an input voltage signal generated by the transducers in response to a reflected ultrasound wave; a plurality of switches, each switch coupled in series between one of the transducers and a respective column bus; a plurality of row busses electrically coupled to the switches, each row bus electrically coupling the switches in a single row to a row selection circuitry configured to selectively couple one or more of the rows of transducers to their respective column busses wherein the row selection circuitry sequentially couples the one or more rows for a duration equal to or less than a sampling period of the transducers divided by the number of rows selectively coupled to their respective column busses.