An embodiment of a 4D data ultrasound imaging system includes a matrix of transducer elements suitable for transmitting and for receiving ultrasound signals, said transducer elements being divided into sub-matrixes suitable for receiving in a delayed way a same acoustic signal, a plurality of reception channels with one of said reception channels being associated with one of said transducer elements, a beamformer device including a plurality of storage cells arranged in re-phasing matrixes, each re-phasing matrix being associated with a corresponding sub-matrix with each row associated with one of said transducer elements, said storage cells including an input storage stage that is selectively associated with a row and a reading output stage that is selectively associated with a buffer; each storage cell that belongs to a same column has the input stage that is dynamically activated in sequential times with respect to another storage cell of the same column for storing the same delayed acoustic signal, said storage cells that belong to the same column have the output stage that is simultaneously activated.

A method for coherent stereo radar tracking includes, at a stereo radar system, transmitting a probe signal, receiving a reflected probe signal in response to reflection of the probe signal by a tracking target, calculating first and second target ranges from the reflected probe signal data, transforming the reflected probe signal data based on the first and second target ranges, and calculating a first target angle from the transformed reflected probe signal data.

An ultrasound probe of an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, includes: a plurality of ultrasound transducers that perform mutual conversion between an ultrasound wave and an electrical signal; a switching circuit that selectively switches ultrasound transducers to be electrically connected to a transmitting/receiving circuit among the plurality of ultrasound transducers; and a matching circuit that is provided at one of a preceding stage and a subsequent stage of the switching circuit, is connected to a position connected directly to the switching circuit, and performs impedance matching between the switching circuit and a circuit disposed at one of the preceding stage and the subsequent stage of the switching circuit.

A measurement and imaging instrument capable of beamforming with high speed and high accuracy without approximate calculation. The instrument includes a reception unit which receives a wave arriving from a measurement object to generate a reception signal; and an instrument main body which performs a lateral modulation while superposing two waves in a two-dimensional case and three or four waves in a three-dimensional case in beamforming processing of the reception signal in which at least one wave arriving from the measurement object is processed as being transmitted or received in the axial direction or directions symmetric with respect to the axial direction to generate a multi-dimensional reception signal, performs Hilbert transform with respect to the multi-dimensional reception signal, and performs partial derivative processing or one-dimensional Fourier transform to generate analytic signals of the multi-dimensional reception signals of the two waves or the three or four waves.

A measurement and imaging instrument capable of beamforming with high speed and high accuracy without approximate calculation. The instrument includes a reception unit which receives a wave arriving from a measurement object to generate a reception signal; and an instrument main body which performs a lateral modulation while superposing two waves in a two-dimensional case and three or four waves in a three-dimensional case in beamforming processing of the reception signal in which at least one wave arriving from the measurement object is processed as being transmitted or received in the axial direction or directions symmetric with respect to the axial direction to generate a multi-dimensional reception signal, performs Hilbert transform with respect to the multi-dimensional reception signal, and performs partial derivative processing or one-dimensional Fourier transform to generate analytic signals of the multi-dimensional reception signals of the two waves or the three or four waves.

Described herein is a transceiver circuit for a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT), provided with: a transmitter stage, which generates excitation pulses for a first node of the CMUT transducer during a transmitting phase, a second node of the CMUT transducer being coupled to a biasing voltage; a receiver stage that is selectively coupled to the first node during a receiving phase and has an amplification stage; a switching stage that couples the receiver stage to the first node during the receiving phase and decouples the receiver stage from the first node during the transmitting phase. The amplification stage is provided with a charge amplifier that has an input terminal and is biased as a function of a biasing voltage; and the switching stage is coupled to the same biasing voltage thereby minimizing an injection of charge into the input terminal upon switching from the transmitting phase to the receiving phase.

A portable ultrasound imaging system includes a scan head coupled by a cable to a portable battery-powered data processor and display unit. The scan head enclosure houses an array of ultrasonic transducers and the circuitry associated therewith, including pulse synchronizer circuitry used in the transmit mode for transmission of ultrasonic pulses and beam forming circuitry used in the receive mode to dynamically focus reflected ultrasonic signals returning from the region of interest being imaged.

An ultrasonic probe includes: an ultrasonic transducer; an amplification stage; a bias circuit, which determines a bias voltage on an input terminal of the amplification stage; and a selector having an intermediate node, a high-voltage switch between the intermediate node and the transducer, and a first low-voltage switch between the intermediate node and the input terminal. A control unit controls the high-voltage switch and the first low-voltage switch so as to alternately couple and decouple the amplification stage and the transducer. A precharge circuit determines a precharge voltage on the intermediate node as a function of the bias voltage, before the amplification stage and the transducer are coupled.

Various embodiments include methods and systems having detection apparatus operable to cancel or reduce leakage signal originating from a source signal being generated and transmitted from a transmitter. A leakage cancellation signal can be generated digitally, converted to an analog signal, and then subtracted in the analog domain from a received signal to provide a leakage-reduced signal for use in detection and analysis of objects. A digital cancellation signal may be generated by generating a cancellation signal in the frequency domain and converting it to the time domain. Optionally, an estimate of a residual leakage signal can be generated and applied to reduce residual leakage remaining in the leakage-reduced signal. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods can be implemented in a variety of applications.

A beamforming apparatus includes: a signal output unit configured to output signals; a time difference corrector configured to correct a time difference between the signals; and a weight applier configured to apply a weight value to the signals, according to an error between the signals with the corrected time difference and a target delay pattern.