JP2530237Y2 - Ultrasound imaging device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to an ultrasonic imaging apparatus having an array transceiver for performing phase conjugate transmission and reception.

(Prior art) An ultrasonic imaging apparatus irradiates an ultrasonic signal into an object from an ultrasonic probe and receives a signal reflected from a tissue or a lesion in the object with the ultrasonic probe. This is a device for displaying a tomographic image formed by a wave and its reflection signal on a CRT for use in diagnosis. By the way, in the process in which an ultrasonic signal propagates inside a subject, is reflected by a reflector, propagates again in the body, and is received by an ultrasonic probe, each tissue in the body, which is a propagating medium, is not homogeneous. Therefore, a phase difference is generated between the sound waves at the stage of reaching the ultrasonic probe, and a phenomenon called a phase canceling effect occurs in which an image due to the received ultrasonic wave is distorted. Due to this effect, the delay distribution of the reflected wave within the aperture plane of the ultrasonic probe does not become as theoretical. For this reason, even if an attempt is made to improve the resolution and improve the image quality by increasing the aperture, the improvement will not be achieved.

To solve this problem, there is a method of performing phase conjugate transmission and reception. Phase conjugate transmission / reception means that two received signals are selected from received signals, a phase difference between channels is obtained, a non-ideal component included therein is obtained, a phase correction amount is determined, and the phase correction amount is determined. (Hereinafter referred to as PAC (Phase Aberration Correction)). As two received signals, a method of selecting two signals of each adjacent element of the ultrasonic element and a method of performing PAC processing by comparing a signal obtained by phasing and adding all received signals with one channel are used. is there.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, in the above-mentioned PAC processing, no matter which method is selected, the processing for obtaining the error correction amount and the data correction thereby are not performed simultaneously, that is, in real time. Then, the state of the propagated medium changes and the meaning of the correction is lost. Therefore, an effort was made to perform the processing at or near this real time. However, the work of collecting correction data in this real time, obtaining the correction amount, and correcting the phase of each real data is very difficult and not easy.

In a medical ultrasonic device, an ultrasonic signal is transmitted, and an echo from a reflector is received.In a shallow place in the body, the frequency distribution of the received signal is not different from the transmitted signal,
As the depth increases, the center frequency of the frequency distribution of the received signal tends to decrease. As described above, since the center frequency of the received signal due to the echo from the deep portion is reduced, if the received signal is processed with the received frequency fixed, the signal having the optimum SN ratio cannot be received. For this reason, the following measures have been taken in the conventional receiving method.

(B) In an incoherent receiver that logarithmically compresses a received signal based on an echo and performs amplitude detection, a filter at an input stage of a receiving unit is used as a time-varying filter whose frequency characteristics change with time after transmission. The received signal is processed by selectively using a higher frequency for the echo and a lower frequency as far as the passband of the probe permits for a deep echo.

(B) In the case of a coherent receiver that demodulates a received signal by echo with a carrier, the same effect can be obtained by changing the characteristic so that the estimated center frequency of the carrier for demodulation is tracked while keeping the characteristics of the baseband fixed. Can be caused.

However, in the phase conjugate reception, since such a measure has not been taken, deterioration of the image quality due to a decrease in the S / N ratio has been inevitable.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and its purpose is to perform real-time observation with a normal image without PAC processing and to perform a detailed inspection afterward with a sufficiently PAC-processed image. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic imaging apparatus capable of performing the above.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic imaging apparatus capable of performing the operation of collecting correction data and the operation of correcting received data without causing a time lag when performing a precise inspection in real time. It is in.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic imaging apparatus capable of performing phase conjugate transmission / reception with an optimum SNR for echoes from different depths.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention for solving the above problems has an element array having a plurality of elements, a recording device for recording a received signal, and a delay for a reproduction signal from the recording device. A delay addition adapting section for performing a phase error correction after the addition.

A second invention is to provide an element array having a plurality of elements, a receiving beamformer equal to the number of elements for phasing and adding the signals received by the element array for each element, A phase detector group for performing phase detection, a PAC controller for calculating a phase error of each element signal from an output signal of the phase detector group, and a phase error for temporarily storing phase error data and thereafter inputting a received signal. Temporary storage for delay correction, which is output as data for changing the amount of delay of the receive beamformer to perform correction, and control of the timing of data collection for phase error correction and image data, and the phase in real time A system controller that enables an image to be displayed with the error-corrected data. That.

In a third aspect of the present invention, an element array having a plurality of elements, a receiving beamformer to which one element is connected to each element, and outputs of the receiving beamformers are added to form phasing addition data. An adder for outputting, and 1 for sequentially inputting the output of each of the elements one channel at a time.
A phase detector for receiving a signal to be corrected for a channel and an output of an adjacent channel or the adder as a reference signal to perform phase detection, and inserting the reference signal input line and, if necessary, a reception signal line, After a lapse of time,
That is, a dynamic filter that shifts the center of the passband in accordance with the depth of the reflector to perform optimal reception, a PAC controller that calculates and stores a phase error amount from data of the output of the phase detector, and each received beam. And an adder for adding and inputting the phase error amount and the beam steering control signal to the former and performing a phase error correction by adjusting a delay amount of each receiving beam former. is there.

Further, in the fourth invention, an element array having a plurality of elements, a variable delay line for delaying a signal received from each element, and an oscillation frequency corresponding to the depth of a reflector from which an ultrasonic signal is reflected change. A carrier oscillator that outputs two signals having different phases by 90 °, a detector that receives the reception signal and an output signal of the carrier oscillator, and outputs two detection signals of i and q, and an output of the input detector A standardization circuit that converts a signal into data of a constant vector value;
Two sets of beamformers and adders for phasing and adding the i, q detection outputs of all the received signals from all the elements, and a standardization circuit for converting the input output signals of the adders into data of a constant vector value; An output of the standardization circuit and an output of the standardization circuit are input, and a divider for dividing the both to obtain a phase difference and changing a delay amount of the variable delay line is provided. Is what you do.

(Operation) The recording device records the received signal by the echo returned by being reflected by the transmitted ultrasonic signal, and reproduces it after the fact to perform a precise inspection to avoid a tedious phase error correction operation.

When real-time observation is performed, the PAC-processed image can be observed without causing a large time lag by performing the PAC measurement data collection and the imaging data collection alternately.

Use a dynamic filter for the fluctuation of the center frequency caused by the difference in the depth of the reflector, or reduce the frequency of the reference signal for detection as time elapses after transmission to obtain an image with the signal with the optimal SN ratio. Obtainable.

(Embodiment) Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.
In the figure, only the receiving unit is shown. In the figure, 1 is an element array composed of 64 elements, and each element is amplified by an amplifier 2. 3 is to change the gain according to the time when the echo returns, and to obtain the same received signal for echoes from reflectors with different depths
TGC (Time Gain Control) 4 is a beamformer for phasing and adding the output reception signals of 64 channels of TGC3. 5
Reference numeral denotes a B-mode display unit which receives the output of the beam former 4, performs amplification and detection, and displays a B-mode image on the display unit. The element array 1 to the B-mode display unit 5
Until then, a normal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 6 is used.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a magneto-optical disk device capable of recording and reproducing received signals for 64 channels of TGC3 in parallel. The magneto-optical disk unit 7 separates a head 7b for recording on the disk 7a, a motor 7c for rotating the disk 7a, a laser 7d for heating the recording layer on the disk 7a, and a recording layer for 64 channels. And a beam splitter 7e. Numeral 7 'denotes a reproduction time of the same magneto-optical disk 7, and numeral 7b' denotes a reproducing head for reproducing information recorded on the disk 7a. Reference numeral 8 denotes a high-frequency AC bias applied to the magneto-optical disk device 7 during recording.
In the RF bias oscillation circuit, the output RF signal is added to the received signal by the adder 9 and applied to the head 7b of the magneto-optical disk device 7 to be recorded on the disk 7a.

Reference numeral 10 denotes an amplifier for rotating a disk 7a reproduced by the magneto-optical disk device 7 'by a motor 7c and amplifying an electric signal obtained by a reproducing head 7b'. 64 amplifiers are provided for 64 channel signals. I have. 11 is an equalizer for 64 channels for correcting the frequency characteristic of the reproduced image of the magnetically recorded signal, and 12 is a phasing addition by delaying and adding the 64 channel signals from the equalizer 11 and performing phase correction. This is a delay addition adaptation unit.

The operation of the embodiment configured as described above will be described. Echo signal from the reflector is received at the respective element EL ₀ ~EL ₆₃ of the element array 1, are amplified by the amplifier 2, it is gain adjusted according to the depth at TGC3, allowed to phasing addition beamformer 4 Is displayed after signal processing by the B-mode display unit 5. Since the image displayed on the B-mode display unit 5 has not been subjected to the PAC processing, it is a slightly sweet image, but such an image is observed during real-time observation.

The output signal of the TGC 3 is added to the RF signal output from the RF bias oscillation circuit 8 by the adder 9 and is input to the head 7b of the magneto-optical disk drive 7. The laser beam generated by the laser 7d is split into recording channels for 64 channels by a beam splitter 7e and heats the disk 7a, thereby magnetically recording a signal input to the head 7b on the disk 7a. The magnetically recorded disk 7a is applied to a magneto-optical disk device 7 'at the time of performing a detailed inspection, and the recorded signal is reproduced and input to an equalizer 11 via an amplifier 10. The equalizer 11 corrects the frequency characteristics of the reproduced image of the image data magnetically recorded on the disk 7a, and adjusts the delay addition.
In step 12, PAC data is obtained from the data of 64 channels. The 64-channel data is corrected based on the obtained PAC data, and displayed on the display unit while viewing the PACed data. In this way, all the received signals of each element of the 64-channel element array 1 of the scene are recorded at a stretch while looking at the viewfinder,
After that, the reproduction is performed gradually and repeatedly, and the phase irregular component of each element is individually detected, and the correction is repeatedly performed so that a correction term is applied to the reproduction signal during the reproduction. In addition, it is possible to observe an image that does not care much about the time difference by using it for correction of the new echo data.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the correction of the phase error is an off-line or post-process repetition process, it is possible to perform a detailed correction. Furthermore,
Since there is no imaging system corresponding to the viewfinder in the camera at the time of data collection, which is a drawback of the offline method, there is no need to repeat trial and error. Therefore, as a result of the post-process, images much better than the viewfinder can be viewed regardless of the length of time.

In this embodiment, another memory such as a semiconductor may be used as the memory, or another memory may be used. The signal is not limited to a high frequency but may be an intermediate frequency or a baseband.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a second embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 21 denotes a transmission trigger generation circuit for generating a trigger for a transmission signal, reference numeral 22 denotes a transmission beamformer for converting a transmission trigger into waveform data for performing electronic scanning, and its output is a transmission / reception circuit group 21. , And is transmitted from the element array 1. Reference numeral 23 denotes a reception beamformer that performs phasing addition on reception signals received by the element array 1 and amplified by reception circuits of the transmission / reception circuit group 21 and converts the reception signals into serial signals. Reference numeral 24 denotes a group of phase detectors for phase-detecting the phasing-added signal and outputting a phase error component. Reference numeral 25 denotes a PAC controller that controls the PAC processing in response to the error data output from the phase detector group 24, and a delay correction temporary storage device 26
And sends a control signal for PAC processing to the system controller 27 to control the PAC processing. Delay correction temporary storage device 26 stores data for PAC
It receives and temporarily stores it from the AC controller 25, and sends delay correction data to the receiving beamformer 23 according to an instruction from the PAC controller 25 under the control of the system controller 27 to correct the amount of delay of the received signal. Reference numeral 28 denotes a B-mode circuit for performing amplification and detection for displaying the output signal of the receiving beam former 23 in B-mode, the output of which is input to the DSC 29 and converted into a TV mode signal, which is displayed on the display device 30. Is done.

The operation of the apparatus of the embodiment configured as described above will be briefly described, and the sequence of data acquisition and PAC treatment execution sequences will be described. The trigger generated by the transmission trigger generation circuit 21 is transmitted by the transmission beamformer 22 so as to form a sound ray.
It is separated into channel signals. This output signal is amplified by the transmission circuit section of the transceiver circuit group 21 is supplied to each element EL ₀ ~EL ₆₃ of the element array and transmit into the subject. The ultrasonic waves that are reflected back from the subject are received by the element array 1, converted into electric signals, amplified by the receiving circuit of the transmitting / receiving circuit group 21, and then transmitted to the receiving beam former 23. It is input, phased and added, and converted to a serial signal.

Since the transmission and reception are performed separately for the measurement for obtaining the PAC data and the acquisition of the B-mode image data in the order described below, the system controller 27 includes the transmission trigger generation circuit 21.
To generate a burst wave for PAC measurement and a pulse wave for image data acquisition. At the time of PAC measurement, the received signal is input to the group of phase detectors 24 and subjected to phase detection. This data is input to the PAC controller 25, and the phase error is calculated. The resulting data over the entire sound ray is temporarily stored in the delay correction temporary storage device 26. In the PAC process for B-mode image data, PAC data is once collected for all sound rays and all elements, phase error data is obtained, and then data correction is performed on the acquired B-mode image data. The corrected data is subjected to processing such as amplification and detection by the B-mode circuit 28 and converted to a TV mode signal by the DSC 29, and then displayed on the display device 30.

Next, FIG. 3 and FIG.
FIG. 5 and FIG. The procedure in FIG. 3 is performed in the order of sound rays, the procedure in FIG. 4 shows another procedure in the frame sequence, and the procedure in FIG. 5 shows another procedure in the frame sequence. The execution procedure of the sound ray sequence will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, SLN
Indicates a sound ray number, and ELN indicates an element number. In this procedure, the PAC measurement of the element number No. 1 and the PAC measurement of the element number No. 2 are sequentially performed on the transmission of the sound ray number No. 1, and the PAC measurement of the element number No. 64 is performed. B
Acquisition of image data for the mode is performed sequentially from sound ray number No. 1 to sound ray number No. 64. Next, PAC measurement is performed for element numbers No. 1 to No. 64 for the transmission of sound ray number No. 2, and during this time, image data for B mode is acquired from sound ray number No. 65 Perform up to line number No.128. Then, the PAC measurement and the image data acquisition for the B mode are interleaved alternately. With the above sequence, acquisition of data for one frame is completed.

Next, acquisition of data of the second frame is performed, and the execution sequence ends with acquisition of data for 64 frames. The PAC processing of the B-mode image data is performed after the execution sequence described above is completed. Therefore, in the first sequence, PA
No correction is performed because there is no C data yet. In the second sequence, correction is performed from the transmission / reception sequence number 2 in the figure. A burst wave is transmitted for PAC measurement, and a pulse wave is transmitted for B mode.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of an execution sequence performed in frame order. In this sequence, the PAC measurement of the element numbers No. 1 to No. 64 is first executed for the sound ray number No. 1, and then the B-mode image data of the sound ray numbers No. 1 to No. 128 is measured. Acquisition is performed using all elements. Similarly, the PAC measurement is performed for the element numbers No. 1 to No. 64 with the sound ray number No. 2 and the phase for the signal received by each element after the PAC measurement for the sound ray number No. 128 is completed The error is calculated and stored in the delay correction temporary storage device 26. B performed after this
In the mode image data acquisition sequence, the B-mode imaging data of the sound ray number No. 1 was previously obtained from the first (first frame) imaging data stored in the delay correction temporary storage device 26. PAC
It is corrected by the phase error data based on the measurement data. Thereafter, the measurement is performed in the same manner as in the measurement of FIG. 1, and the B-mode imaging data is sequentially corrected for each sound ray number. Finally, when the 128th frame imaging is completed, corrected imaging is obtained for all elements. Can be This PAC measurement and acquisition of B-mode image data are performed alternately, and the data uses the PAC data of the previous measurement.
There is almost no time lag with only a delay of about one second for a batch.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of another execution procedure of the frame sequence. This is different from the PAC measurement shown in Fig. 4 in that the sound ray number is No. 1
From No. 1 to No. 128, and a sequence similar to the B-mode image data acquisition sequence shown in FIG.
o PAC of element number No. 2 over each sound ray of No. 1 to No. 128
Perform measurement. In this case as well, the first time over all the elements
The phase error data obtained after the end of the PAC measurement is stored in the delay correction temporary storage device 26, and the B-mode image data obtained after the second measurement is corrected using the stored data. Also in this case, the PAC measurement and the acquisition of the B-mode image data are performed alternately, and the correction of the B-mode image data is delayed only by about one second, which is one time of the entire procedure.

In addition, as in the case of frames 1 and 2 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the measurement is not performed on the total number of sound ray numbers, but is performed on a small number of PAC measurements, and correction data of each element is obtained. May be corrected while interpolating.

In the execution procedure of FIGS. 4 and 5, PAs from a large number of elements or all
The collection of the C data may be performed simultaneously. In this way, the number of phase detectors or correlators is required to be as large as the number of elements for simultaneous data acquisition, but the time can be shortened accordingly.

FIG. 6 is an example of still another execution procedure. This is an example in which a phase comparator is provided for all the elements of the element array 1. During the transmission of the sound ray number No. 1, the data of each element is simultaneously sampled and the phase comparison is performed. I take the. This is stored in the delay correction temporary storage device 26. Next, B-mode image data of all the elements having the sound ray number No. 1 is obtained. In the next cycle after the completion of this sequence, the B-mode image data of the sound ray number No. 1 is obtained, and the delay correction temporary storage device 26 is acquired.
The B-mode image data is corrected by the previous correction data stored in the. This is performed for all sound rays.

It can be carried out by many methods other than the above-mentioned several methods. In short, the correction can be made without a large time lag by alternately performing the PAC measurement and the B-mode image data acquisition.

As described above, according to the procedure of the execution sequence used in the apparatus of the present embodiment, the PAC measurement data acquisition and the B-mode image data acquisition are performed by interleaving each other under a certain rule. Data can be effectively corrected within a short time, at most within one second, which is the time required to execute one sequence, and phase-corrected imaging with good tracking performance can be performed.

Third Embodiment FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention.
This embodiment is intended to prevent the S / N ratio from deteriorating because the frequency distribution varies depending on the depth of the reflector. In the figure, 64 of the element array 1 EL ₀ ~EL ₆₃
Elements. 40 is a receiving beamformer group consisting of 64 beamformers connected to each element, and a beam steering control signal (BS
C) Beam direction is controlled by input. 41 adds are output the input of the receive beamformer group 40 of each element EL ₀ ~EL _63, adds the received signals from the 64 elements, I reception beam former group coupled with 64 channels Is an adder that performs phasing addition on the received signals. 42 is an adder 41
Is a dynamic filter that changes the center frequency of the passband according to the change in the depth of the signal extracted from the phasing addition point, which is the output point of. 43 is a dynamic filter 42
Output signal, i.e. as a reference signal a signal that signals of all elements are phased and added by the adder 41, the phase of detecting the phase of the received signal at the output of the receive beamformer 40 _K for beamforming a signal element EL _K It is a detector. 44 is an LPF for removing harmonic components in the output signal of the phase detector 43, and 45 is a built-in memory for storing the data obtained by filtering the output of the phase detector 43 as a phase error correction signal and storing the data. PAC controller. 46 is an adder for adding the BSC and PAC signals, the output signal of which is a receive beamformer 40
Input to _K to correct delay.

Next, the operation of the embodiment configured as described above will be described. 64 elements EL ₀ respectively ~EL received signals of the elements array 1 having ₆₃ reception beam former 40 _0-4
0 ₆₃ , and after a predetermined delay, the adder 41 performs phasing addition. The signal subjected to the phasing addition is taken out from the phasing addition point A and input to the dynamic filter 42. The dynamic filter 42 always matches the spectrum of the arriving signal with the selectivity of the receiver, works so as to perform reception with the best S / N ratio, and prevents deterioration of the S / N ratio of the received signal due to a change in depth. This output signal is input as a reference signal to the phase detector 43, a signal subjected to delay in reception beam former 40 _K which is the target channel element EL _K phase detector. An unnecessary high-frequency component is removed from the detection output signal by the LPF 44, a phase difference component is calculated by the PAC controller 45, and stored in the memory unit of the PAC controller 45 as it is. When the element EL _K has reception next, PAC data from the memory unit of the PAC controller 45 is input to the adder 46 is read out and summed with the BSC controls the delay amount of the reception beam former 40 _K. This received signal output from the element EL _K by is output to the next circuit 47 is a conventional receiver circuit in the subsequent stage is PAC treatment. Note that the output lead-out point of the receive beamformer 40 _K, the input point to the receive beamformer of the adder 46 is switched to each element by means such as a switch (not shown), all of the elements array 1 it is possible to correct the signal of the element EL ₀ ~EL _63. or,
It may be configured to be connected in parallel with the input point and these drawers point to all beamformer 40 _{0-40 63.}
This increases the number of required components, but speeds up processing.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the reception of the optimum state of the S / N ratio up to the depth where the reception corrected in such a manner that the S / N ratio is kept good cannot be performed in the device in which the observation frequency is fixed is not possible. Becomes possible.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the third embodiment, and the following embodiments can be considered. In the embodiment of FIG. 7, the dynamic filter is inserted only in the circuit of the reference signal.
It may be inserted into the circuit of the received signal.

Although the circuit of FIG. 7 corrects the signal of the element of one channel by the signals of all the elements, it may be corrected by the signal of the adjacent channel. An example of this circuit is shown in FIG. In the figure, the same parts as those in FIG. 7 are denoted by the same reference numerals. This embodiment is an element
And corrects seeking phase error by the element EL _K-1 of the signal received signals EL _K, others will not be described operation the same as the Figure 7.

Also in this embodiment, a dynamic filter may be inserted in a circuit in which a received signal is input to the phase detector 43. Or In this circuit the input point to the receive beamformer the extraction point of the receive beamformer 40 _K-1 and 40 _K adder 46 to take turns system by switch changeover over the entire channel, to all circuits Any of the methods of connecting in parallel may be adopted.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of still another embodiment of the third embodiment. Set the received signal of element EL _K of element array 1 to P
The case of performing the AC processing will be described. Received signal is amplifier 50
, And is subjected to delay processing by the variable delay line 51 and input to the detector 52. Detector 52 consists of detector 52i and detector 5
2q, the outputs of the variable delay lines 51 are respectively input, and the 0 ° phase (sin ωt) and 90 ° phase (cos ωt) signals of the carrier generated by the carrier oscillator 53 are detected by a detector 52i. Is input to each of the detectors 52q and subjected to phase detection. The i signal and q signal of this output are LPF54i and LP
Through the F54q, the beamformer 55i and the adder 56i perform phasing addition in the beamformer 55q and the adder 56q. LPF54
Before performing division for obtaining a phase error from the phase information included in the output signal of the i, 54q and the phase information included in the output signals of the adders 56i and 56q, the levels need to be equalized. The output of the LPF 54q is supplied to the standardization circuit 57 by i, q2
The magnitude of the vector combined with the signals is set to, for example, one, and the outputs of the adders 56i and 56q are output to the standardization circuit 58 by the magnitude of the vector combined with the i, q2 signals. So that division can be performed at the same level. The divider 59 divides two signals output from the standardization circuits 57 and 58 to calculate a phase difference between the two signals. The phase difference between the two signals calculated here is input to the variable delay line 51,
PAC processing is performed by changing the delay amount.

The carrier oscillator 53 changes the oscillation frequency according to the change of the center frequency of the echoes of the reflectors having different depths, and
To enter. The detector 52 outputs a carrier whose frequency changes in accordance with a change in the center frequency of the input received signal as a reference signal, so that the detection output of the detector 52 is kept in the best SN ratio. FIG. 10 shows a change in the oscillation frequency of the carrier oscillator 53. In the figure, decreases as the frequency time there was a f ₁ at transmit time, is transmitting as they become f _2, shows a state in which the frequency is returned to f _1.

(Effects of the Invention) As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when the detailed inspection can be performed afterwards, the inspection based on the data subjected to the PAC processing can be performed accurately without panic later. Become.

Further, the collection of the PAC measurement data and the correction of the received data can be performed in real time with almost no time lag, and the PAC process can be performed without being affected by the change in the medium due to the time lag.

Furthermore, even for echoes from reflectors with different depths, SN
Phase conjugate transmission / reception can be performed in an optimum ratio, and the practical effect is great.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram of an execution procedure of the second embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram of another execution procedure of the second embodiment, FIG. 6 is a diagram of another execution procedure of the second embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8, FIG. 8 is a block diagram of another circuit of the third embodiment, FIG. 9 is a block diagram of still another circuit of the third embodiment, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the oscillation frequency of the carrier wave oscillator of the embodiment of FIG. It is a figure showing a change. 1 element array 7, 7 'magneto-optical disk drive 8 RF bias oscillation circuit 9, 41, 46, 56 adder 12 delay addition adaptation unit 22 transmission beamformer 23 40,55… Received beamformer 24… Phase detector group 25, 45… PAC controller 26… Temporary storage device for delay correction 27… System controller 42… Dynamic filter 43… Phase detector 51… … Variable delay line, 52… Detector 57, 58… Standardized circuit, 59… Divider

Claims (4)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. An element array having a plurality of elements for receiving an ultrasonic wave from a subject and converting it into a received signal, and a storage for storing a received signal from the element array corresponding to one or more images. Means, for a received signal read from the storage means, a phase difference correcting means for correcting a phase difference between the received signals due to a non-homogeneous medium in the subject, and a received signal from the element array or the Image generation means for generating an image based on the corrected signal from the phase difference correction means, image display means for displaying an image generated by the image generation means, and an element for displaying an image in real time. Displays an image generated based on the received signal supplied directly from the array, and displays the image after phase difference correction. Control means for reading out a received signal from the storage means and displaying an image generated based on the signal supplied from the phase difference correction means. Acoustic imaging device. 2. An element array having a plurality of elements for transmitting ultrasonic waves to a subject, receiving ultrasonic waves from the subject, and converting the received signals into reception signals, and a non-homogeneous medium in the subject. A drive signal supply unit that supplies a drive signal to transmit an ultrasonic wave for calculating a phase difference and an ultrasonic wave for generating an image for generating an image to be displayed to the element array, and When an ultrasonic wave for calculating a phase difference is transmitted and received, a beamformer for phasing and adding the received signal for calculating the phase difference from the element array and outputting a phasing-added signal, Calculating means for receiving the phasing-added signal and calculating each phase difference in the plurality of elements; and phase difference correction information based on the phase difference calculated from the calculating means. Supplying phase difference correction information for correcting a phase difference between the received signals from the element array that has transmitted and received the ultrasonic waves for generating the image to the beamformer; Means, when the ultrasonic wave for generating the image is transmitted and received, the beamformer transmits the received signal for generating an image from the element array based on the phase difference correction information from the phase difference correction information supplying means. Phase-correcting the received signal while correcting the phase difference of the phase-corrected information, outputting a phase-added signal, based on the phase-corrected signal from the beamformer. Image generating means for generating an image by means of an image, image displaying means for displaying an image generated by the image generating means, and a supersonic for calculating the phase difference Ultrasonic imaging apparatus characterized by comprising a control means for controlling to alternate the sound ray sequential or frame sequential transceiver and an ultrasonic wave transmitting and receiving for the image generation of. 3. An element array having a plurality of elements for receiving an ultrasonic wave from a subject and converting it into a received signal, and calculating a phase difference for calculating a phase difference due to a heterogeneous medium in the subject. A plurality of delay means for delaying a phase difference calculation reception signal from the plurality of elements and outputting a phase difference calculation delay signal, Adding means for adding the phase difference calculation delay signal and outputting a phase difference calculation addition signal, so as to prevent the deterioration of the S / N ratio due to a change in the depth of the subject,
A dynamic filter for filtering the phase difference calculation addition signal from the addition means or the phase difference calculation delay signal from the delay means; and a phase difference from the delay means using the filtered signal from the dynamic filter as a reference signal. Phase detection means for phase-detecting the calculation delay signal; receiving the phase-detected signal from the phase detection means, calculating the phase difference; and calculating a phase based on the phase difference calculated from the calculation means. Phase difference correction information, which corrects the phase difference between the received signals for image generation from the element array when receiving ultrasonic waves for image generation for generating an image to be displayed. Phase difference correction information supply means for supplying phase delay correction information to the delay means for performing, the delay means, When receiving the ultrasonic wave for generating the image, the reception signal is corrected while correcting the phase difference between the reception signals for image generation from the element array based on the phase difference correction information from the phase difference correction information supply means. And outputs an image generation delay signal, and the adding means adds the image generation delay signals from the plurality of delay means and outputs an image generation addition signal. Phase difference correction information supply means, image generation means for generating an image based on the image generation addition signal from the addition means, and image display means for displaying the image generated by the image generation means. Ultrasound imaging device characterized. 4. An element array having a plurality of elements for receiving an ultrasonic wave from a subject and converting it into a received signal, and calculating a phase difference for calculating a phase difference due to a non-homogeneous medium in the subject. A plurality of delay means for delaying a phase difference calculation reception signal from the plurality of elements and outputting a phase difference calculation delay signal, when an ultrasonic wave for reception is received, In order to prevent the deterioration of the SN ratio, a carrier oscillating means for outputting a carrier signal by changing the frequency of two carriers having a phase difference of 90 ° according to the depth, and a carrier signal from the carrier oscillating means as a reference signal A plurality of phase detection means for phase-detecting the phase difference calculation delay signals from the plurality of delay means and outputting a phase difference calculation phase detection signal; and Rank A beam former for phasing and adding the phase detection signal and outputting a phasing addition signal for calculating a phase difference; and a phase detection signal for calculating a phase difference from the phase detection means and phasing for calculating a phase difference from the beam former. Calculating means for calculating a phase difference due to the inhomogeneous medium in the subject based on the addition signal; and phase correction information based on the phase difference calculated from the calculating means, for generating an image to be displayed. Phase difference correction for providing to the delay means phase correction information for correcting a phase difference between received signals for image generation from the element array when receiving ultrasonic waves for image generation from the element array. Information supply means, wherein the delay means, when receiving the ultrasonic waves for image generation, based on the phase difference correction information from the phase difference correction information supply means, While delaying the received signal while correcting the phase difference between the received signals for image generation from the array and outputting a delayed signal for image generation, the phase difference detection means includes a carrier wave from the carrier wave oscillation means. Using the signal as a reference signal, phase detection is performed on the image generation delay signals from the plurality of delay units to output an image generation phase detection signal, and the beamformer outputs the image from the plurality of phase detection units. A phase correction information supply unit that performs phasing addition on the generation phase detection signal and outputs an image generation phasing addition signal; and generates an image based on the image generation phasing addition signal from the beamformer. An ultrasonic image, comprising: an image generating means for performing the image generation; and an image display means for displaying an image generated by the image generating means. Packaging equipment.