Multiple line of sight ultrasonic apparatus

Claim 1

Apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of an object comprising: a linear array of discrete transducer elements; means to energize at least one element of said array to transmit a pulse of ultrasonic energy into the object in the form of a diverging beam of transmitted energy which ensonifies a region within the object; means for receiving echoes of said pulse of ultrasonic energy reflected by acoustic impedance discontinuities within a respective region of predetermined width and depth of the object, said means for receiving echoes comprising means to activate a plurality of said transducer elements to receive echoes of the transmitted pulse along a plurality of substantially parallel received beams; means for sampling said received echoes from said plurality of received beams after a substantially constant time delay relative to the time of transmission of said ultrasonic energy to thereby form a line of image data, said sampling means repeating the sampling at a plurality of substantially constant delay times to produce an output of image lines related to echoes returning from a region of predetermined width and depth within the test object; and means for substantially concurrently displaying, the output of said sampling means, including means for displaying said image lines as curves or loci, each curve or locus defining points within the object which serve as a source of said echoes, such that information representative of the acoustic impedance discontinuities within said region is displayed with the time period following the transmission of a single pulse and preceding the transmission of the next pulse.

Claim 8

A method of ultrasonic examination of an object comprising the steps of: transmitting a pulse of ultrasonic energy into the object by energizing at least one element of a linear array of discrete transducer elements to form a diverging beam of transmitted energy which ensonifies a region within the object; receiving echoes of said pulse of ultrasonic energy reflected by acoustic impedance discontinuities within a respective region of predetermined width and depth of the object by activating a plurality of said transducer elements to receive echoes of said transmitted pulse along a plurality of substantially parallel received beams; producing an output of image lines related to echoes returning from a region of predetermined width and depth within the test object; and substantially concurrently displaying, said image lines as curves or loci, each curve or locus defining points within the object which serve as a source of said echoes such that information representative of the acoustic impedance discontinuities within said region is displayed within the time period following the transmission of a single pulse and preceding the transmission of the next pulse.

Claim 9

A method of ultrasonic examination of an object comprising the steps of: transmitting a pulse of ultrasonic energy into the object by energizing at least one element of a linear array of discrete transducer elements to form a diverging beam of transmitted energy which ensonifies a region within the object; receiving echoes of said pulse of ultrasonic energy reflected by acoustic impedance discontinuities within a respective region of predetermined width and depth of the object by activating a plurality of said transducer elements to receive echoes of said transmitted pulse along a plurality of substantially parallel received beams; producing an output of image lines related to echoes returning from a region of predetermined width and depth within the test object; and substantially concurrently displaying, said image lines as curves or loci, each curve or locus defining points within the object which serve as a source of said echoes such that information representative of the acoustic impedance discontinuities within said region is displayed within the time period following the transmission of a single pulse and preceding the transmission of the next pulse.