EP0068052A1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Ultrasonic imaging apparatus and method
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1981-06-29
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2001-06-29
Abstract
Abstract Ultrasonic imaging apparatus utilises an ultrasonic probe 1 consisting of a linear array of transmitters T1 to T23 located between two parallel rows of receiver pairs RA1, RB1 to RA24, RB24. Echoes received by each of a group (three) of receiver pairs following injection of a single pulse into a body under investigation are Individually processed to focus the echo information along selected equidistant parallel focus lines extending into the body and lying in a scan plane determined by the position of the probe 1 with respect to the body. The processed echo signals representing discontinuities along the focus lines are displayed on a line-by-line basis on a raster-scanned CRT 36 to produce a pictorial representation of the section of the body in the scan plane. Thus, the echo signals from one receiver pair (RA1, RB1) are digitised by analogue-to-digital converter 20 and stored as they occur sequentially in an addressed digital memory 22.1 or 22.2 at a constant rate. The stored signals subsequently are read-out from the memory at a rate determined by a function generator 26 to transform the signals in the time domain by a calculated amount in order to compensate for different propagation times of echoes resulting from any positional off-set of the associated receiver pair from the selected focus line. The echo signals from all receiver pairs in the group read-out from their respective memories at the various selected rates are multiplied together by multiplier 3 to produce a single correlated sequence of echo signals representing only those discontinuities along the selected focus line. Information representing several such focus lines is generated successively from the stored information representing echoes from a single injected pulse, simply by changing the time transformation required by the re-positioning to the focus line with respect to the receivers. By repeating the process for each pulse -sequentially injected into the body, a real-time high resolution image of cross-section of the internal structure of the body is produced on the CRT.
Inventors
- 👤 Milan Herman Miessler
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-06 01:37
CPC Classifications
G; G01; G01S; G01S15/00; G01S15/88; G01S15/89; G01S15/8906; G01S15/8909; G01S15/8915; G01S15/8918; G01S7/00; G01S7/52; G01S7/52017; G01S7/52053; G01S7/52057; G01S7/5206; G10; G10K; G10K11/00; G10K11/18; G10K11/26; G10K11/34
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 12
Claim 1
Independent Claim
202 words
A method for use in the production of a cross-sectional image of a body using ultrasonic imaging apparatus operating on the pulse echo principle and including a linear array of ultrasonic probes capable of injecting pulses into a heterogeneous body and of detecting echoes from discontinuities within the body, said method characterised by the steps of: cyclically pulsing successive adjacent probes in turn to inject a repetitive sequence of ultrasonic pulses substantially in a single scan plane into the body; following the injection of each ultrasonic pulse, generating echo signal waveforms representing the timing of individual echoes detected by a preselected group of probes associated with the probe generating the pulse; performing time transforms on echo signal waveforms generated by those probes within the group that are physically displaced from a predetermined focus line into the body so that thereafter, individual echo signals within the waveforms representing echoes of the injected pulse from discontinuities on that focus line are converted to the same linear time scale for all probes within the group; and thereafter correlating the echo signal waveforms from all probes within a group so that those echo signals representing echoes from discontinuities lying on the selected focus line are reinforced.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
202 words
A method for use in the production of a cross-sectional image of a body using ultrasonic imaging apparatus operating on the pulse echo principle and including a linear array of ultrasonic probes capable of injecting pulses into a heterogeneous body and of detecting echoes from discontinuities within the body, said method characterised by the steps of: cyclically pulsing successive adjacent probes in turn to inject a repetitive sequence of ultrasonic pulses substantially in a single scan plane into the body; following the injection of each ultrasonic pulse, generating echo signal waveforms representing the timing of individual echoes detected by a preselected group of probes associated with the probe generating the pulse; performing time transforms on echo signal waveforms generated by those probes within the group that are physically displaced from a predetermined focus line into the body so that thereafter, individual echo signals within the waveforms representing echoes of the injected pulse from discontinuities on that focus line are converted to the same linear time scale for all probes within the group; and thereafter correlating the echo signal waveforms from all probes within a group so that those echo signals representing echoes from discontinuities lying on the selected focus line are reinforced.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
49 words
A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising the steps of performing a sequence of such time transforms on each echo signal waveform generated from probes in a selected group in order to generate reinforced correlated echo signals representing echoes from discontinuities on a plurality of selected focus lines.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
108 words
A method as claimed in claim 2, comprising the steps of repetitively generating echo signal waveforms from selected groups of probes following sequential pulsing of the probes; performing time transforms on the waveforms as aforesaid in order to generate reinforced echo signals representing echoes from discontinuities on a plurality of equidistant focus lines extending across a section of the body in the scan plane; and using the reinforced echo signals to modulate the intensity of a raster-scanned CRT to display on corresponding scan lines of the CRT display operating in synchronism with the ultrasonic imaging apparatus the locations within the body of the discontinuities on each focus line.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
60 words
A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which a time transform on an echo signal waveform includes the step of advancing the waveform as a whole with respect to time by an amount corresponding to the initial time delay due solely to the off-set of the transducer generating the waveform from the selected focus line.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
193 words
Ultrasonic scanning apparatus for use in the production of a cross-sectional image of a body, comprising a linear array of ultrasonic probes each capable of injecting pulses into a heterogeneous body and of detecting echoes from discontinuities within the body, characterised by means for cyclically pulsing each successive adjacent probe in turn to inject a repetitive sequence of ultrasonic pulses substantially in a scan plane into the body, means, following injection of each individual pulse, for generating echo signal waveforms from a selected group of probes, each waveform representing the timing of echoes of the injected pulse detected by a probe, means for performing time transforms on error signal waveforms from those probes in the group that are physically displaced from a predetermined focus line into the body, the time transform being effective to convert individual echo signals within the waveforms, representing echoes from discontinuities on that focus line, to the same linear time scale for all probes within the group, and means thereafter for correlating the echo signal waveforms from all probes within a group so that those echo signals representing echoes from discontinuities lying on the selected focus line are reinforced.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
193 words
Ultrasonic scanning apparatus for use in the production of a cross-sectional image of a body, comprising a linear array of ultrasonic probes each capable of injecting pulses into a heterogeneous body and of detecting echoes from discontinuities within the body, characterised by means for cyclically pulsing each successive adjacent probe in turn to inject a repetitive sequence of ultrasonic pulses substantially in a scan plane into the body, means, following injection of each individual pulse, for generating echo signal waveforms from a selected group of probes, each waveform representing the timing of echoes of the injected pulse detected by a probe, means for performing time transforms on error signal waveforms from those probes in the group that are physically displaced from a predetermined focus line into the body, the time transform being effective to convert individual echo signals within the waveforms, representing echoes from discontinuities on that focus line, to the same linear time scale for all probes within the group, and means thereafter for correlating the echo signal waveforms from all probes within a group so that those echo signals representing echoes from discontinuities lying on the selected focus line are reinforced.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
90 words
Ultrasonic scanning apparatus as claimed in claim 5, including means for loading the individual echo signals in an echo signal waveform from each probe in a selected group as they are generated into successive available locations of an associated sequentially addressed random access store addressed at a first predetermined rate, and means for reading-out the echo signals from the store at a second predetermined rate, the relationship between the first and second rate being selected in accordance with the time transform to be performed on the stored echo signal waveform.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
49 words
Ultrasonic scanning apparatus as claimed in claim 6, in which each said associated random access store is sequentially addressed by means of an address counter which when initiated clocks through each available storage location of its associated random access store in turn at said first or second predetermined rate.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
145 words
Ultrasonic scanning apparatus as claimed in claim 7, in which echo signal waveforms are loaded into store at a constant rate (Fw) and read-out at a variable rate (Fr), wherein the variable read-out rate of each stored signal waveform is a function of the distance (d) of the probe detecting the echoes represented by the waveform from the selected focus line, and the distance (x) of the discontinuities within the body generating the echo signals, given by the expression: and which, prior to read-out of a random access memory, the associated address counter is pre-loaded with a predetermined value to off-set the contents of the memory by an amount such that the locations storing that portion of the echo signal waveform representing the initial time delay due solely to the physical off-set of the associated probe from the selected focus line is excluded from read-out.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
105 words
Ultrasonic scanning apparatus as claimed in claims 6, 7 or 8, in which said echo signal waveforms from a selected group of probes resulting from successive pulses injected into the body are stored alternately in one or other of two corresponding groups of random access memories, the arrangement being such that during the period in which the echo signal waveforms previously stored following injection of a pulse into the body are being read-out from one group of random access memory, the echo signal waveforms resulting from injection of the next pulse into the body are being stored in the other group of random access memory.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
93 words
Ultrasonic scanning apparatus as claimed in any one of the claims 5 to 9, in which each said probe consists of an ultrasonic transmitter operable to transmit a pulse of ultrasound along a predetermined axis and a pair of ultrasonic receivers lying one on each side of the axis equidistant therefrom and in a plane at right angles to the axis, the outputs of the receivers being connected to respective inputs of a signal multiplier, said echo signal waveforms generated by each probe being derived from the output of the associated signal multiplier.
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