Abstract: A micro-machined ultrasonic transducer (MUT) having aperture, elevation and apodization controlled by apparatus located on the same substrate as the transducer, or by bias voltage control applied to MUT elements, allows for an efficient and compact ultrasonic probe. The control apparatus may take the form of field effect transistors (FET's), micro-machined relays, or doped regions on the substrate, or any other apparatus that may be located on the same substrate as that of the transducer, or by bias voltage sources connected to the MUT elements.

Abstract: The method of the invention controls an ultrasound unit to characterize echo signals from a region of interest (ROI) and to adjust unit parameters in accord therewith. The method initially defines a region of interest within an ultrasound image and processes received echo values from the region of interest to determine characteristics of the received echo values. Then at least one system parameter of the ultrasound unit is adjusted to cause the received echo values from the ROI to exhibit a desired characteristic. The derived system parameter is then used to control the ultrasound unit to produce a subsequent ultrasound image that includes the ROI as a portion thereof. The method of the invention further enables a user of an ultrasound system to obtain a quantitative measure of blood perfusion of an investigational region of interest (IROI), Data from a normalization region of interest (NROI) is used to create a normalization value to characterize the image echoes from the NROI.