Apparatus for real-time distributed computation of beamforming delays in ultrasound imaging system

摘要

An apparatus for generating the required beamforming delays for an ultrasound imaging system with minimal hardware and software. The apparatus performs an algorithm which allows the required computations to be separated into three groups. The first group includes transducer array geometry computations which are beam independent. The second group includes a small number of beam-dependent computations which are channel independent. The final group includes the channel- and beam-dependent calculations which combine the results of the first two groups to generate the required beamforming delays. This last computation is distributed to logic (62) and simple real-time state machines (64) per channel. This approach reduces the required computations and takes advantage of simple parallel processing to reduce the required hardware and computational time relative to conventional beamformer designs. Beam-dependent parameters are broadcast to all channels simultaneously, where they are combined with channel parameters to provide the required delay controls.