A Multiple Aperture Ultrasound Imaging system and methods of use are provided with any number of features. In some embodiments, a multi-aperture ultrasound imaging system is configured to transmit and receive ultrasound energy to and from separate physical ultrasound apertures. In some embodiments, a transmit aperture of a multi-aperture ultrasound imaging system is configured to transmit an omni-directional unfocused ultrasound waveform approximating a first point source through a target region. In some embodiments, the ultrasound energy is received with a single receiving aperture. In other embodiments, the ultrasound energy is received with multiple receiving apertures. Algorithms are described that can combine echoes received by one or more receiving apertures to form high resolution ultrasound images. Additional algorithms can solve for variations in tissue speed of sound, thus allowing the ultrasound system to be used virtually anywhere in or on the body.

Disclosed is a method and a device for characterizing, for example identifying at least one object depicted in a raster image (1) or determining the speed of sound of the object, the raster image (1) having pixel rows and pixel columns. In order to efficiently and accurately characterize the object, the invention provides that several pixel columns (Cn) are selected and each of the selected pixel columns (Cn) is converted into a line profile (L), the amplitude of the line profile (L) representing the value (V) of image information of selected pixels of the respective selected pixel column (Cn), wherein the method comprises determining characteristics of the line profiles (L) and using the characteristics to characterize the at least one object depicted in the raster image (1).

Acoustic data, such as a full matrix capture (FMC) matrix, can be reconstructed by applying a previously trained decoder machine learning model to one or more encoded acoustic images, such as the TFM image(s), to generate reconstructed acoustic data. A processor can use the reconstructed acoustic data, such as an FMC matrix, to recreate new encoded acoustic images, such as TFM image(s), using different generation parameters (e.g., acoustic velocity, part thickness, acoustic mode, etc.)

Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging using a beamformer that incorporates a model of the object. In some aspects, a system includes an array of transducers to transmit and/or receive acoustic signals at an object that forms a synthetic aperture of the system with the object, an object beamformer unit to (i) beamform the object coherently as a function of position, orientation, and/or geometry of the transducers with respect to a model of the object, and (ii) produce a beamformed output signal including spatial information about the object derived from beamforming the acoustic echoes; a data processing unit to process data and produce an image of the object based on a rendition of the position, the orientation, the geometry, and/or the surface properties of the object, relative to the coordinate system of the array, as determined by the data processing unit.

The invention provides an ultrasound data processing method for pre-processing signal data in advance of generating ultrasound images. The method seeks to reduce noise through application of coherent persistence to a series of raw ultrasound signal representations representative of the same path or section through a body but at different successive times. A motion compensation procedure including amplitude peak registration and phase alignment is applied to raw echo signal data in advance of application of persistence in order to cohere the signals and thereby limit the introduction of motion induced artifacts.

A catheter-based ultrasound imaging system configured to provide a full circumferential 360-degree view around an intra-vascular/intra-cardiac imaging-catheter-head by generating a three-dimensional view of the tissue surrounding the imaging-head over time. The ultrasound imaging system can also provide tissue-state mapping capability. The evaluation of the vasculature and tissue characteristics include path and depth of lesions during cardiac-interventions such as ablation. The ultrasound imaging system comprises a catheter with a static or rotating sensor array tip supporting continuous circumferential rotation around its axis, connected to an ultrasound module and respective processing machinery allowing ultrafast imaging and a rotary motor that translates radial movements around a longitudinal catheter axis through a rotary torque transmitting part to rotate the sensor array-tip. This allows the capture and reconstruction of information of the vasculature including tissue structure around the catheter tip for generation of the three-dimensional view over time.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe configured to transmit and receives ultrasonic waves to and from an observation region of an object. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus further includes an estimated image generating unit configured to generate estimated image data corresponding to image data based on an ultrasonic focused beam from image data obtained by transmission of an ultrasonic plane-wave beam by using a model having been machine-learned from learning data including image data obtained by the transmission of the ultrasonic plane-wave beam and image data obtained by the transmission of the ultrasonic focused beam.

An ultrasound system according to some embodiments may include an ultrasound transducer configured to transmit ultrasound pulses toward tissue and generate echo signals responsive to the ultrasound pulses, a channel memory configured to store the echo signals, a beamformer configured to generated beamformed signals responsive to the echo signals, a neural network configured to receive one or more samples of the echo signals or the beamformed signals and produce a first type of ultrasound imaging data, and a processor configured to generate a second type of ultrasound imaging data, wherein the one or more processors may be further configured to generate an ultrasound image based on the first type of ultrasound imaging data and the second type of ultrasound imaging data and to cause a display communicatively coupled therewith to display the ultrasound image.

To implement a single-chip ultrasonic imaging solution, on-chip signal processing may be employed in the receive signal path to reduce data bandwidth and a high-speed serial data module may be used to move data for all received channels off-chip as digital data stream. The digitization of received signals on-chip allows advanced digital signal processing to be performed on-chip, and thus permits the full integration of an entire ultrasonic imaging system on a single semiconductor substrate. Various novel waveform generation techniques, transducer configuration and biasing methodologies, etc., are likewise disclosed. HIFU methods may additionally or alternatively be employed as a component of the “ultrasound-on-a-chip” solution disclosed herein.

The current invention concerns a method, a computer system, and a computer program product for blood vessel image In extraction from ultrasound signals, and a method and apparatus for ultrasound imaging A set of ultrasound signals at successive times in a plurality of spatial points is obtained. The ultrasound signals are decomposed as a sum of terms. Each term consists of a time-independent spatial component image factor and a space-independent temporal component signal. The spatial component images are mutually orthonormal. The temporal component signals are mutually orthogonal. A sharpened spatial image for each of multiple spatial component images is determined. A processed image being a bilinear combination of multiple sharpened spatial images is generated.