Abstract: There are provided transducers, transmission pulse generators for transmitting pulses to the transducers, a transmission power source for supplying power to the transmission pulse generators, and an output side capacitor 7 for stabilizing a voltage of the transmission power source. The transmission power source includes a plurality of mode-specific power sources 1A and 1B for outputting a constant voltage, and a mode changeover switch 6 provided between the mode-specific power sources and the output side capacitor. The transmission power source further includes a power supplying power source 2 connected to the mode-specific power sources for supplying power, and a power regeneration capacitor 4 with a larger capacity than that of the output side capacitor, one electrode terminal of which is connected to a connection point between the power supplying power source and the mode-specific power sources and the mode changeover switch, and the other electrode terminal of which is connected to ground.

Abstract: A small ultrasound diagnostic device is provided at a low cost that enables the appropriate control by a single power supply unit so as to give a predetermined transmission power to a driving waveform different for each mode without excess or deficiency and without affecting properties of the driving waveform. The ultrasound diagnostic device includes: an ultrasound generation unit (1) that transmits ultrasound; a waveform generation unit (2) that generates a single pulse or a burst pulse whose duty factor is variable in units of a time that is a period corresponding to a frequency outside a frequency band of the ultrasound generation unit (1) so as to drive the ultrasound generation unit (1); and a single power supply unit (3) that determines an amplitude of a driving waveform generated by the waveform generation unit (2). Thereby, an acoustic power of the transmitted ultrasound can be controlled without making the transmission amplitude variable.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is provided that can achieve an excellent image quality even in the case where a subject moves at a high speed. A memory (3) stores a first signal obtained through first-time transmission/reception. When a second signal is obtained through second-time transmission/reception, a delay amount calculator (6) calculates a delay amount for either of the first and second signals based on first and second timings outputted respectively from first and second zero crossing detectors (4, 5), at which the first and second signals cross zero, respectively. Delayers (7, 8) delay the first or second signal by the calculated delay amount so that phases of the signals are matched with each other. An adder (9) adds together the two signals whose phases have been matched.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is disclosed which can reduce the device amount of a receiving circuit, while obtaining the shape of an excellent received beam. In this ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, a plurality of transducer elements are arrayed and used as an ultrasonic probe, and the transducer elements are driven by a plurality of transmission driving circuit. The signal received by the transducer element is distributed to any of a plurality of input terminals of a cross point switch beam former. The received signals of the three transducer elements near the center of the aperture of the ultrasonic probe are added and inputted to one terminal of a beam former. The second, fourth and sixth transducer elements at the end of the aperture are not connected to the beam former. The signals received by the transducer elements are delay-added by the beam former. The delay precision can be improved, and the beam shape can be made sharper, thereby improving the image quality of the ultrasonic image.

Abstract: There is provided an ultrasonic image displaying system capable of displaying an image of a fetus that is easy for a subject to understand without requiring a complicated operation by an operator. The ultrasonic image displaying system is provided with a display unit 104 for displaying an image of a fetus, a part data recording part 106 for recording part images, and a synthesis unit 103 for adding a part image read from the part data recording part 106 to a region designated by the operator on the image of the fetus displayed on the display unit 104.

Abstract: There is provided a method for determining an aperture of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that prevents a beam pattern from being deteriorated and allows an image with excellent quality to be obtained. The method includes: a beam formation simulation step (S102) of performing a simulation of an ultrasonic beam pattern to be formed, based on a parameter concerning a signal processing condition of a probe including a manner of adding and thinning received signals from transducers; and an addition and thinning pattern determination step (S103) of determining whether or not the beam pattern obtained in the beam formation simulation step satisfies a predetermined criterion including a maximum value of a sidelobe level, an allowable amount of reduction in sensitivity in the case where no addition and thinning is performed, and the like.

Abstract: According to the present invention, provided is an ultrasonic diagnostic equipment which meanders the reception focus position so that the reception focus position is made further away from the transmitted beam at the transmission focus depth d1 and is made closer to the transmitted beam in areas shallower and deeper than the depth d1, and thereby makes the shapes of the first and the second composite beams straight lines, thereby preventing the stripe patterns in the display image from being generated and enabling a preferable image quality with reduced image distortion to be obtained, even when the parallel reception is performed.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is disclosed which can reduce the device amount of a receiving circuit, while obtaining the shape of an excellent received beam. In this ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, a plurality of transducer elements are arrayed and used as an ultrasonic probe, and the transducer elements are driven by a plurality of transmission driving circuit. The signal received by the transducer element is distributed to any of a plurality of input terminals of a cross point switch beam former. The received signals of the three transducer elements near the center of the aperture of the ultrasonic probe are added and inputted to one terminal of a beam former. The second, fourth and sixth transducer elements at the end of the aperture are not connected to the beam former. The signals received by the transducer elements are delay-added by the beam former. The delay precision can be improved, and the beam shape can be made sharper, thereby improving the image quality of the ultrasonic image.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment capable of reducing cost by reducing the number of transmission drive circuits for generating transmission pulse is disclosed. High voltage switches 3-1 to 3-32 for determining an aperture by selecting eight pieces from among transducer elements 2-1 to 2-32 to which transmission pulse is applied, and low voltage switches 11-1 to 11-16 for selecting 16 pieces from among the transducer elements 2-1 to 2-32 to receive ultrasonic echo are provided individually. Regarding the high voltage switches 3 for transmission, four inputs are integrated into one, and a distribution circuit of 1:4 is constructed. Regarding the low voltage switches 11 for reception, two outputs are integrated into one, and a multiplexer of 2:1 is constructed. Linear scanning is performed by only eight pulsers (transmission drive circuits) 4-1 to 4-8. The high voltage switches 3 for transmitting ultrasonic waves and the low voltage switches 11 for receiving ultrasonic waves are separated from each other.

Abstract: A system for analyzing an echo image containing a contour of an organ with reduced manual operation is provided. The echo image is first obtained. A user manually sets, say, four points as known or initial points such that two of the known points provide a width of the contour and the other two of the known points provide a height of the contour. A search region including a connecting line segment connecting each pair of adjacent ones of the known points is set on the contour. A search line segment that originates from a point bisecting the connecting line segment of the search region and reaches an end of the search region is set. Each search line segment is sought for a contour point constituting the contour. A contour is formed by connecting the contour points on the search line segments. Three points may be set as the initial points such that two of the initial points provide a width of the contour and the other one is on top of the contour.

Abstract: A system for analyzing an echo image containing a contour of an organ with reduced manual operation is provided. The echo image is first obtained. A user manually sets, say, four points as known or initial points such that two of the known points provide a width of the contour and the other two of the known points provide a height of the contour. A search region including a connecting line segment connecting each pair of adjacent ones of the known points is set on the contour. A search line segment that originates from a point bisecting the connecting line segment of the search region and reaches an end of the search region is set. Each search line segment is sought for a contour point constituting the contour. A contour is formed by connecting the contour points on the search line segments. Three points may be set as the initial points such that two of the initial points provide a width of the contour and the other one is on top of the contour.

Abstract: A system for analyzing an echo image containing a contour of an organ with reduced manual operation is provided. The echo image is first obtained. A user manually sets, say, four points as known or initial points such that two of the known points provide a width of the contour and the other two of the known points provide a height of the contour. A search region including a connecting line segment connecting each pair of adjacent ones of the known points is set on the contour. A search line segment that originates from a point bisecting the connecting line segment of the search region and reaches an end of the search region is set. Each search line segment is sought for a contour point constituting the contour. A contour is formed by connecting the contour points on the search line segments. Three points may be set as the initial points such that two of the initial points provide a width of the contour and the other one is on top of the contour.

Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a probe which outputs RF signals. There are N phase detectors for converting the RF signals outputted from the probe into baseband signals In and Qn, where “N” denotes a first predetermined natural number and “n” denotes a second predetermined natural number set as 2≦n≦N. A reception beam former operates for processing the baseband signals In and Qn into a time-division-multiplexed signal. The reception beam former includes a device for multiplying the baseband signals In and Qn by phase shift data to generate multiplication-resultant signals, a device for delaying the multiplication-resultant signals to generate delay-resultant signals, and a device for combining the delay-resultant signals into the time-division-multiplexed signal.

Abstract: A nonlinear distortion-based ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system displays a raised-resolution video of tissue inside a body at an increased frame rate. Using a two-pulse technique, a transducer driver supplies narrower-width and wider-width driving pulses to a transducer, which transmits weaker and stronger ultrasonic wave pulses alternately while putting the same intervals between adjacent ultrasonic wave pulses to obtain a weaker echo and a stronger echo. An equalizer equalizes each weaker echo to the stronger echo into an equalized weaker echo. An interpolator calculates an interpolation value between the equalized weaker echo and an equalized previous weaker echo obtained from a previous weaker echo. For each weaker ultrasonic wave pulse, a detector finds a difference between the interpolation value and a stronger echo obtained between the weaker echo and the previous weaker echo. The equalization and interpolation enables high-speed scanning, which has not been achieved with two-pulse technique.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic system includes a transducer. A first electric drive signal is fed to the transducer. A second electric drive signal is fed to the transducer at a time different from a time of the feed of the first electric drive signal thereto. The second electric drive signal has a waveform different from a waveform of the first electric drive signal. A first received signal is derived from an output signal of the transducer. The first received signal represents ultrasonic echoes related to an ultrasonic beam caused by the transducer in response to the first electric drive signal. A second received signal is derived from the output signal of the transducer. The second received signal represents ultrasonic echoes related to an ultrasonic beam caused by the transducer in response to the second electric drive signal.

Abstract: An ultrasonic Doppler blood flow meter apparatus includes a wall filter for eliminating clutter from an echo signal of an ultrasonic pulse signal sent to a living being under test. The wall filter includes a switch for cutting a part of input data and a control unit for controlling the switch such that the switch is opened during a period in which first m data (where m is integer) is inputted to undergo filtering by the wall filter while the switch is closed during a period in which data following the (m+1)-th data inclusive thereof are inputted.

Abstract: In an ultrasonic diagnostic equipment for performing synthetic aperture, deterioration of picture quality produced by the movement of an object is prevented, thereby to provide an excellent image. Arrayed piezoelectric transducers are driven by a transmitting circuit so as to transmit ultrasonic waves into a body, and, among echoes received by piezoelectric transducers, first the signals of the piezoelectric transducers are selected by amplified appropriately by amplifiers and converted into digital signals by added with delay by a beam former thereafter, and stored in a memory. Similarly, the ultrasonic waves are transmitted again, signals of the piezoelectric transducers are selected by the applied with similar signal processing in the amplifiers, and the beam former, and added to signals added with delay of the piezoelectric transducers T3 to T6 stored in a memory 16 by an adder.

Abstract: An ultrasonic Doppler imaging apparatus emits ultrasonic pulse waves to an object body under test and provides information on blood flow in the body based on Doppler shifts of ultrasonic waves reflected back from the object body. The ultrasonic pulse waves emitted by a probe to the object body undergo Doppler shifts by being reflected by the blood stream, and the reflected ultrasonic waves received by the probe are decomposed with an A/D converter in synchronism with emission. The decomposed data are transformed into complex Doppler data through a quadrature addition/subtraction by quadrature addition/subtraction means. The complex Doppler data is subjected to frequency analysis through correlative computation or the like, and resulting data is stored in a frame memory and displayed. The apparatus is capable of measuring the Doppler shift frequency accurately.

Abstract: Disclosed is an ultrasonic Doppler imaging apparatus in which the velocity of a blood flow in a living body can be computed with high precision without increasing a scale of a signal processing circuit, so that a Doppler color image having satisfactory image quality is displayed. In the apparatus, an ultrasonic pulse signal is transmitted into the living body and is reflected from a target in the living body to be received by an ultrasonic probe, and the reception signal is subjected to quadrature phase detection to obtain an I signal and a Q signal. When an amplitude evaluating unit evaluates on the basis of the intensity of the I and Q signals that the reception signal contains many clutter components, a cut-off frequency of high-pass filters is increased by the application of a control signal (A) to thereby eliminate low-frequency clutter components. The outputs of the high-pass filters are converted into blood flow velocity information to be displayed as a Doppler color image.

Abstract: A beam former for a ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is arranged to have low-bit analog-to-digital converters and enables to obtain an excellent echo signal from blood flow. The beam former further includes a sample and hold circuit for sampling an echo signal of a pulse reflected from the inside of a human body. A delaying circuit serves to delay the output of the sample and hold circuit by a delay time corresponding to an integer multiple of a transmitted pulse period and is subtracted from the output of the sample and hold circuit. The subtracted output is analog-to-digital converted and is stored in a memory. The memory reads out the data asynchronously with the storage. The delaying circuit is composed of an analog-to-digital converter, a memory and a digital-to-analog converter and has a delay time corresponding to an integer multiple of the transmitted pulse period.