An ultrasound circuit comprising a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) with built-in time gain compensation functionality is described. The TIA is coupled to an ultrasonic transducer to amplify an electrical signal generated by the ultrasonic transducer in response to receiving an ultrasound signal. The TIA is, in some cases, followed by further analog and digital processing circuitry.

Certain embodiments include an apparatus, system, or method for time-gain compensation control of an ultrasound system. A computer-implemented method can include providing a tactile gain control comprising a near, middle, and far gain control. The middle gain control can be configured for two-dimensional range adjustment of depth and gain. The computer-implemented method can also include adjust at least one of the near, middle, or far gain control. In addition, the computer-implemented method can include displaying an ultrasound image based on at least one of the adjusted near, middle, or far gain control.

Systems and methods for increasing effective line density of volume compound ultrasound images while maintaining the frame rate, penetration depth, and other image characteristics are provided. The method includes acquiring a first lateral plane at a first elevational position. The first lateral plane includes a first set of receive lines at a first set of lateral positions. The method includes acquiring a second lateral plane at a second elevational position adjacent the first elevational position. The second lateral plane includes a second set of receive lines at a second set of lateral positions laterally offset from the first set of lateral positions. The method includes combining the first lateral plane and the second lateral plane to generate a compound image and presenting the compound image at a display system. The compound image may be a volume compound image in an A-plane generated based on volume compound imaging rendering algorithms.

An intraoperative ultrasound imaging system and method capable of using ultrasound imaging to safely place a surgical access instrument (e.g. guide wire, dilator, cannula, etc.) through a tissue (e.g., muscle, fat, brain, liver, lung, etc.) without damaging nearby neurovascular structure is described herein. The intraoperative ultrasound system includes an ultrasound probe assembly configured for emitting and receiving ultrasound waves and a computer system including a processor and a display unit. Once the probe is in position, ultrasound imaging is performed wherein the computer receives RF data from the probe and causes a B-mode image of the visible anatomical structures (e.g. muscle, bone, etc.) to be displayed on the display unit.

An optomechanical ultrasound detector includes: a micromirror substrate; a mechanical resonator that receives ultrasound waves, oscillates at resonator frequency f.sub.r, changes cavity length L.sub.c, and produces intra-cavity light; and an optical microcavity between the micromirror substrate and the mechanical resonator with cavity length Lc and cavity resonance frequency f.sub.c formed by the mechanical resonator and the micromirror substrate, such that the micromirror substrate produces cavity output light from the intra-cavity light, wherein the cavity output light optically encodes information about the ultrasound waves received by the mechanical resonator.

An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to an embodiment includes a transmission unit, a reception unit, a generator, and a display controller. The transmission unit causes an ultrasonic probe to transmit a displacement-producing ultrasonic wave and causes the probe to transmit a displacement-observing ultrasonic wave. The reception unit generates reflected-wave data based on a reflected wave received by the probe. The generator calculates displacement at each of a plurality of positions in the scan area over a plurality of time phases, based on the reflected-wave data, determines a time phase when the calculated displacement is substantially maximum, for each of the positions, and generates image data representing positions where the determined time phases are substantially the same as each other, among the positions. The display controller superimposes an image based on the image data on a medical image corresponding to an area including the scan area.

A system and method from improving the image quality achievable with an ultrasound transducer by using a composite aperture for receiving ultrasound echoes. By using two receive cycles per vector, twice as many transducers may be used for receiving ultrasound imaging data than there are physical channels available in the ultrasound probe. An ultrasound probe utilizing a composite aperture can achieve high image quality from a system have reduced power, size, cost and complexity.

A system configured for vehicle communication includes a first smart apparatus associated with a first vehicle having a first horn and configured to acquire a first target information and a transmission direction information; a first horn control portion embedded in the first vehicle and configured to control the first horn in the first vehicle to send a first sound wave signal modulated by the first target information to a second vehicle based on the transmission direction information; and a second smart apparatus associated with the second vehicle and configured to receive the first sound wave signal and demodulate the first sound wave signal to obtain the first target information.

Methods for contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging that implement coded multi-pulses in each of two or more different transmission events are described. Data acquired in response to the two different transmission events are decoded and combined. In some embodiments, the coded multi-pulses include two or more consecutive Hadamard encoded ultrasound pulses. In other embodiments, multiplane wave pulses can be used. Such multiplane wave pulses can be coded using Hadamard encoding, as one example. In addition, the multiplane wave pulses can be further coded using amplitude modulation, pulse inversion, or pulse inversion amplitude modulation techniques.

Aspects of the technology described herein related to an ultrasound processing unit (UPU) including gray-coding circuitry configured to convert standard binary-coded digital ultrasound signals to gray-coded digital ultrasound signals and gray-decoding circuitry coupled to the gray-coding circuitry and configured to convert the gray-coded digital ultrasound signals to standard binary-coded digital ultrasound signals. The UPU may include an analog portion, a digital portion, and a data bus configured to route the gray-coded digital ultrasound signals from the analog portion to the digital portion subsequent to converting the standard binary-coded digital ultrasound signals to the gray-coded digital ultrasound signals. The analog portion may include multiple analog front-ends (AFEs), the gray-coding circuitry, and an analog-to-digital converter. The digital portion may include the gray-decoding circuitry. A data bus from one AFE may pass over another AFE.