Abstract: A semiconductor device that is a facedown mountable, chip-size-package type semiconductor device, the semiconductor device including: a semiconductor substrate; and a metal layer that is disposed on the semiconductor substrate and is exposed to outside. One or more marks are provided on an exposed surface of the metal layer. The one or more marks each include an outline portion defining an outline of the mark, and a central portion located inward of the outline portion. In a plan view of the exposed surface of the metal layer, the outline portion has a color different from at least one of a color of the central portion or a color of a base portion that is a portion of the exposed surface of the metal layer on which the one or more marks are not provided.

Abstract: In performing aperture synthesis according to an ultrasound imaging apparatus, the amount of spatial change of amplification factors of phasing signals at respective receive phasing points are reduced, and a high-quality image is obtained. In a receive beamformer that generates an inter-transmission weight in accordance with a phasing range, and performs aperture synthesis processing, the inter-transmission weight being generated is applied to the receive phasing points within the phasing range obtained through transmission and reception, and the inter-transmission synthesis is performed. The inter-transmission weight is generated in such a manner that a variation form of the amplification factor between adjacent receive phasing points is smoothed and a difference of the amplification factor is reduced, as to each receive phasing point after the inter-transmission synthesis is performed.

Abstract: Reception beamforming that does not generate discontinuity in the vicinity of the depth of a transmit focus is executed even if reception scanning lines are disposed outside of the irradiation area of a focusing-type transmission beam. The degree of discontinuity showing the discontinuity of reception signals detected by plural ultrasound elements 105 or the degree of discontinuity regarding the discontinuity of the wave fronts of phased signals is detected by a discontinuity extracting unit 113. If there is an area where the degree of discontinuity is larger than a predefined value, a delay time generating unit 114 for discontinuity elimination changes the delay times in the area where the discontinuity is generated.

Abstract: Reception beamforming is executed using delay times that complexly vary in accordance with differences between transmission conditions. An irradiation area 32 of a transmission beam is calculated, and the lengths of segments, using which delay times are calculated, are set in accordance with the positional relationships between the calculated irradiation area 32 and reception scanning lines 31. For example, the reception scanning lines 31 are divided into areas A to C, and the lengths of segments 40b in the outer area B located outside of the irradiation area 32 are set shorter than the lengths of segments 40a and 40c in the inner areas A and C.

Abstract: A compact delay circuit that can dynamically change delay time is configured. A probe includes an analog memory unit that accumulates electric charges corresponding to a reflected wave of an ultrasonic wave produced by a difference between the acoustic impedances on a plurality of capacitors 303 and in turn outputs the electric charges accumulated on the capacitors 303 to an analog memory unit 205. In accumulating electric charges, when a control signal Ctls_l that increases delay time of the reflected wave is inputted, the analog memory unit 205 accumulates the same electric charges on two or more of the capacitors 303 for a preset period, or in outputting electric charges, when a control signal Ctlo_l is inputted, the analog memory unit 205 outputs the electric charges accumulated on one of the capacitors 303 for a preset period.

Abstract: There is provided an ultrasound imaging apparatus that can reduce vertical stripes even though a transmission interval is widened for high speed imaging. When a receiving unit 1201 receives an instruction to perform a high speed imaging mode, an aperture synthesizing unit 1300 adds a predetermined number (N) of phase outputs obtained from the reflected ultrasonic waves of individual transmission beams at the same received focal points to reduce the occurrence of stripes on an image. In order to generate N phase outputs at each of the received focal points, a control unit 401 finds a necessary number (M) of the reception scanning lines to be set by the reception beam former 603, and notifies the reception beam former 603 of the number.

Abstract: There is provided an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of measuring hardness information of a subject with high time resolution and spatial resolution. The apparatus is provided with a ultrasonic probe 1 and a displacement generation unit 10 configured to displace an inside of a subject and is configured to transmit an ultrasonic beam for displacement detection to a plurality of detection positions of the subject from the ultrasonic probe 1, and to detect a shear wave velocity based on the displacement at the plurality of detection positions in a control unit 3 by using a reflection signal detected in a detection unit 20, thereby outputting hardness information of the subject. The ultrasonic beam for displacement detection is transmitted to one of the plurality of detection positions.

Abstract: In performing aperture synthesis according to an ultrasound imaging apparatus, the amount of spatial change of amplification factors of phasing signals at respective receive phasing points are reduced, and a high-quality image is obtained. In a receive beamformer that generates an inter-transmission weight in accordance with a phasing range, and performs aperture synthesis processing, the inter-transmission weight being generated is applied to the receive phasing points within the phasing range obtained through transmission and reception, and the inter-transmission synthesis is performed. The inter-transmission weight is generated in such a manner that a variation form of the amplification factor between adjacent receive phasing points is smoothed and a difference of the amplification factor is reduced, as to each receive phasing point after the inter-transmission synthesis is performed.

Abstract: A weight value used for a beamforming process performed on received signals in an ultrasound imaging apparatus is obtained with a small amount of computations and with a high degree of precision, even when a method of adaptive signal processing is employed. Multiple elements 401 receive ultrasound signals from a test subject, and the similarity operator 404 obtains the similarity between the received signals x(n). By using the similarity C(n) between the received signals obtained by the similarity operator 404, the adaptive weight operator 407 computes the adaptive weight w(n) in association with the similarity. The beamforming operator 408 uses the adaptive weight w(n) and the received signal x(n) to generate a beamforming output. The imaging processor 108 uses the beamforming output to generate image data. By way of example, the similarity operator 404 performs computations of the similarity in the time direction.

Abstract: There is provided an ultrasound imaging apparatus that can reduce vertical stripes even though a transmission interval is widened for high speed imaging. When a receiving unit 1201 receives an instruction to perform a high speed imaging mode, an aperture synthesizing unit 1300 adds a predetermined number (N) of phase outputs obtained from the reflected ultrasonic waves of individual transmission beams at the same received focal points to reduce the occurrence of stripes on an image. In order to generate N phase outputs at each of the received focal points, a control unit 401 finds a necessary number (M) of the reception scanning lines to be set by the reception beam former 603, and notifies the reception beam former 603 of the number.

Abstract: Reception beamforming that does not generate discontinuity in the vicinity of the depth of a transmit focus is executed even if reception scanning lines are disposed outside of the irradiation area of a focusing-type transmission beam. The degree of discontinuity showing the discontinuity of reception signals detected by plural ultrasound elements 105 or the degree of discontinuity regarding the discontinuity of the wave fronts of phased signals is detected by a discontinuity extracting unit 113. If there is an area where the degree of discontinuity is larger than a predefined value, a delay time generating unit 114 for discontinuity elimination changes the delay times in the area where the discontinuity is generated.

Abstract: Reception beamforming is executed using delay times that complexly vary in accordance with differences between transmission conditions. An irradiation area 32 of a transmission beam is calculated, and the lengths of segments, using which delay times are calculated, are set in accordance with the positional relationships between the calculated irradiation area 32 and reception scanning lines 31. For example, the reception scanning lines 31 are divided into areas A to C, and the lengths of segments 40b in the outer area B located outside of the irradiation area 32 are set shorter than the lengths of segments 40a and 40c in the inner areas A and C.

Abstract: A compact delay circuit that can dynamically change delay time is configured. A probe includes an analog memory unit that accumulates electric charges corresponding to a reflected wave of an ultrasonic wave produced by a difference between the acoustic impedances on a plurality of capacitors 303 and in turn outputs the electric charges accumulated on the capacitors 303 to an analog memory unit 205. In accumulating electric charges, when a control signal Ctls_l that increases delay time of the reflected wave is inputted, the analog memory unit 205 accumulates the same electric charges on two or more of the capacitors 303 for a preset period, or in outputting electric charges, when a control signal Ctlo_l is inputted, the analog memory unit 205 outputs the electric charges accumulated on one of the capacitors 303 for a preset period.

Abstract: Provided is an ultrasound imaging apparatus which can compensate deterioration in the image quality resulting from heterogeneity of a test object medium. A reception beamformer 108 performs synthesizing after performing phasing processing of a signal received by an ultrasound element array 105 for each of two or more steering directions. The two or more steering directions are instructed by a steering direction instruction unit 112. The two or more steering directions include two directions each of which forms predetermined angles on the right and left with respect to a direction of a reception focal point along the ultrasound element array in an array direction. The predetermined angles are preferably null angles.

Abstract: An ultrasonic probe includes a plurality of ultrasonic transducers. The ultrasonic probe is connected to a reception system circuit including at least one first delay adder circuit in which a predetermined number among the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is configured as one subarray and delaying and adding are performed in subarray units with respect to an ultrasonic wave reception signal that is acquired from the ultrasonic transducers included in the subarray, and a second delay adder circuit in which delaying and adding are performed with respect to the ultrasonic wave reception signal that is acquired from the ultrasonic transducers. The plurality of ultrasonic transducers include a first group which transmits the reception signal to the second delay adder circuit passing through the first delay adder circuit and a second group which transmits the reception signal directly to the second delay adder circuit without passing through the first delay adder circuit.

Abstract: There is provided an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of measuring hardness information of a subject with high time resolution and spatial resolution. The apparatus is provided with a ultrasonic probe 1 and a displacement generation unit 10 configured to displace an inside of a subject and is configured to transmit an ultrasonic beam for displacement detection to a plurality of detection positions of the subject from the ultrasonic probe 1, and to detect a shear wave velocity based on the displacement at the plurality of detection positions in a control unit 3 by using a reflection signal detected in a detection unit 20, thereby outputting hardness information of the subject. The ultrasonic beam for displacement detection is transmitted to one of the plurality of detection positions.

Abstract: Ultrasound imaging apparatus including a two-dimensional array of plural transducer elements distributed two-dimensionally and transmits and receives ultrasonic waves while scanning an area to be imaged to create an ultrasound three-dimensional image. Transducer elements are divided into plural element blocks including a first element block of which a size in a second direction of an arrangement surface of the two-dimensional array is larger than a size in a first direction of the surface, and a second element block of which a size in the first direction is larger than a size in the second direction. Each of the element blocks is divided into a predetermined number of groups to form a transmit beam and plural receive beams in the area to be imaged. Further included is a selecting means for making transmit/receive channels of the transducer elements grouped to be one channel in each of the groups.

Abstract: According to a method of adaptive signal processing, compensation for deterioration of image quality caused by wavefront distortion is provided in an ultrasound imaging apparatus, with a low computing amount and with a precision. The elements 106 receive ultrasound signals from a test subject, and the delay circuit 204 delays each of the signals received by the plural elements in association with a predetermined position of a receive focus. The peripheral information operator 205 acquires from the post-delay received signals, information items as to plural points on the receive focus and in the peripheral region thereof, respectively. By way of example, the peripheral information operator obtains adaptive weights in association with plural steering angles. The peripheral information combiner 206 combines the plural information items (adaptive weights), and uses thus combined information to generate a beamforming output.

Abstract: A weight value used for a beamforming process performed on received signals in an ultrasound imaging apparatus is obtained with a small amount of computations and with a high degree of precision, even when a method of adaptive signal processing is employed. Multiple elements 401 receive ultrasound signals from a test subject, and the similarity operator 404 obtains the similarity between the received signals x(n). By using the similarity C(n) between the received signals obtained by the similarity operator 404, the adaptive weight operator 407 computes the adaptive weight w(n) in association with the similarity. The beamforming operator 408 uses the adaptive weight w(n) and the received signal x(n) to generate a beamforming output. The imaging processor 108 uses the beamforming output to generate image data. By way of example, the similarity operator 404 performs computations of the similarity in the time direction.

Abstract: A transmission/reception beamformer output provided with point spread functions having different wave number vector directions is used to obtain a compound image that is highly isochronous and sufficiently blurring-resistant.