ULTRASOUND IMAGING APPARATUS WITH ADAPTIVE BEAMFORMER AND ULTRASOUND IMAGING METHOD WITH ADAPTIVE BEAMFORMING

摘要

An ultrasound imaging apparatus of the present invention includes a probe (302) which has a plurality of elements (301) arranged in an array which receive elastic waves propagating within a subject and converts the received elastic waves to received signals a first signal processing unit (10 410 810) which uses the received signals output by the elements to calculate first output signals corresponding to the elastic waves from a target position a second signal processing unit (20 420 820) which uses the first output signals of the target position to calculate second output signals corresponding to elastic waves from the target position and an image processing unit (412) which uses the second output signals to generate image data for display on an image display device (413). At least one of the first signal processing unit (10 410 810) and the second signal processing unit (20 420 820) uses adaptive signal processing to calculate the first output signals or the second output signals. An ultrasound imaging method corresponding to the ultrasound imaging apparatus is also disclosed.