D-L D Liu

6447452, Sep 10, 2002

Jun 29, 2000

09/606494

D-L Donald Liu - Issaquah WA
John C. Lazenby - Fall City WA
Zoran Banjanin - Newcastle WA
Bruce A. McDermott - Bellevue WA

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. - Iselin NJ

A61B 800

600443, 73625

A system and method for reducing parallel beamforming artifacts. An interpolation of amplitude data is performed to correct for the blocky appearance of images formed with parallel receive beams. In addition, the transmit beam is modified to approximate a rectangular beam.

6685641, Feb 3, 2004

Feb 1, 2002

10/061402

D-L Donald Liu - Issaquah WA

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. - Malvern PA

A61B 800

600443

Plane waves are transmitted at different incident angles, and the radio frequency echo waveforms received by the elements in an array are processed with a Fourier transform. This method is capable of generating one frame of ârawâ image for each transmitted plane wave. The formation of each raw image includes: temporal Fourier transform of radio frequency echo signal from each element; phase rotation; spatial Fourier transform; complex interpolation; and an inverse spatial-temporal Fourier transform. This method does not require the synthesis of limited diffraction beams and is computationally more efficient compared to conventional delay-and-sum approach. These raw images are combined coherently to enlarge spatial frequency coverage and enhance lateral resolution. The resolution-enhanced images are further combined incoherently to achieve speckle reduction.

6749570, Jun 15, 2004

Aug 23, 2002

10/227112

D-L Donald Liu - Issaquah WA
Thilaka S. Sumanaweera - Los Altos CA

Acuson Corporation - Mountain View CA

A61B 800

600443, 128915

A method and apparatus for ultrasound breast imaging is described. Breast is positioned in between an ultrasound array and a plate with embedded point or line targets. The apparatus and reflections from the targets are used 1) to improve focusing by correcting for tissue delay and amplitude aberration and 2) to improve diagnostics by constructing speed of sound and attenuation coefficient images.

7207943, Apr 24, 2007

Mar 24, 2004

10/807681

Stephen R. Barnes - Bellevue WA, US
Mirsaid Bolorforosh - Portola Valley CA, US
D-L Donald Liu - Issaquah WA, US

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. - Malvern PA

A61B 8/00

600447

Using configurable arrays, synthetic aperture processes may be used along an elevation dimension for increasing resolution. The increased resolution is used for two-dimensional or three-dimensional imaging. Alternatively or additionally, wide band synthetic elevation aperture focusing processes, such as beamformation, are provided along the elevation dimension to increase resolution. In yet another alternative or additional embodiment, a transducer is rotated about a center of the transducer within the elevation and azimuth plane. An aperture associated with the transducer is mechanically or electronically rotated, and ultrasound data acquired associated with a plurality of different positions. The ultrasound data is then used for synthetic elevation aperture processing. In yet another alternative or additional embodiment, multiple scanning modes are provided.

7466256, Dec 16, 2008

Mar 30, 2007

11/731568

Daniel Edward Brueske - Sammamish WA, US
D-L Donald Liu - Issaquah WA, US
Steven Martin - Issaquah WA, US
Brian Colby - Renton WA, US

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. - Malvern PA

H03M 3/00

341143, 600447, 600457, 600443, 12866007, 12866101

Ultrasound information for B-mode and CW Doppler mode use the same digital beamformer. Due to sigma-delta conversion or over sampling, sufficient dynamic range is provided for the desired bandwidth. By mixing the input ultrasound information to base band before conversion, additional dynamic range may be provided. The electrical impedance may be better matched to elements by connecting a different number of sigma-delta converters to an element. Elements with lower impedance may be connected to a plurality of sigma-delta converters. To increase the aperture size for elements with a higher impedance, the same sigma-delta converters may be used as separate receive beamformer channels without the summation.

7583214, Sep 1, 2009

Mar 30, 2007

11/731567

D-L Donald Liu - Issaquah WA, US
Daniel Edward Brueske - Sammamish WA, US
Brian Vincent Colby - Renton WA, US

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. - Malvern PA

H03M 3/00

341143, 600447

Receive beamformers for receive beamforming ultrasound information include a plurality of channels. The received signals for each channel are oversampled for conversion to digital form, such as sampling with a sigma-delta converter. The reconstruction of the samples into data at the Nyquist or other rate is performed in stages. Partial reconstruction to a rate less than the oversampling rate, but greater than the Nyquist rate, occurs prior to summation across channels. Delays are implemented by selecting data from the sample stream. After summation, the samples are reconstructed at a Nyquist or other rate.

7658713, Feb 9, 2010

Mar 9, 2007

11/716371

Stephen R. Barnes - Bellevue WA, US
Mirsaid Bolorforosh - Portola Valley CA, US
D-L Donald Liu - Issaquah WA, US

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. - Malvern PA

A61B 8/00
A61B 8/12
A61B 8/14

600437, 600407, 600440, 600443, 600444, 600447

Multiple scanning modes are provided. In a survey mode, imaging is provided without synthetic elevation aperture processing. For greater detailed imaging, imaging is responsive to synthetic elevation aperture processes with different elevation focusing and scanning.

7789831, Sep 7, 2010

Mar 9, 2007

11/716368

Stephen R. Barnes - Bellevue WA, US
Mirsaid Bolorforosh - Portola Valley CA, US
D-L Donald Liu - Issaquah WA, US

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. - Malvern PA

A61B 8/00

600437, 600439, 600441, 600443, 600447, 600449, 600453, 600454, 600455, 600456, 600458

Using configurable arrays, synthetic aperture processes may be used along an elevation dimension for increasing resolution. The increased resolution is used for two-dimensional or three-dimensional imaging. Alternatively or additionally, wide band synthetic elevation aperture focusing processes, such as beamformation, are provided along the elevation dimension to increase resolution. In yet another alternative or additional embodiment, a transducer is rotated about a center of the transducer within the elevation and azimuth plane. An aperture associated with the transducer is mechanically or electronically rotated, and ultrasound data acquired associated with a plurality of different positions. The ultrasound data is then used for synthetic elevation aperture processing. In yet another alternative or additional embodiment, multiple scanning modes are provided.