Because of the increase of the obesity related diseases, it is desirable to be able to detect a fatty liver and quantify the content in fat for the fatty liver. Known methods are biopsy and magnetic resonance imaging. However, biopsy is an invasive method and magnetic resonance imaging is a complicated method to carry out. The inventors propose a new ultrasonic method which is more compliant with a regular control of the content in fat for the fatty liver for a subject. This method notably relies on a smart exploitation of the coherence properties of ultrasound pulses applied to the liver. This method has already been validated on sane subjects as providing accurate measurements, notably for fat content.

Aspects of the technology described herein relate to ultrasound device circuitry as may form part of a single substrate ultrasound device having integrated ultrasonic transducers. The ultrasound device circuitry may facilitate the generation of ultrasound waveforms in a manner that is power- and data-efficient.

An ultrasonic imaging system including an array transducer that includes a plurality of elements each performing at least one of emission or reception of ultrasonic waves, at least some of the plurality of elements being disposed so as to face each other. The ultrasonic imaging system performs malfunction inspection including specifying one emitting element among emitting elements that emit ultrasonic waves and a group of receiving elements that are at least some of the plurality of elements and that receive transmitted waves emitted from the emitting element and transmitted through an imaging region; collecting measurement data of the transmitted waves via the group of receiving elements while switching the emitting element; calculating transfer characteristic values from the measurement data; and detecting a malfunctioning element among the plurality of elements on the basis of the transfer characteristic values.

Some disclosed implementations include an ultrasonic sensor stack and an acoustic resonator. The acoustic resonator may be configured to enhance ultrasonic waves transmitted by the ultrasonic sensor stack in an ultrasonic frequency range that is suitable for ultrasonic fingerprint sensors. In some examples, the acoustic resonator may include one or more low-impedance layers residing between a first higher-impedance layer and a second higher-impedance layer. Each of the one or more low-impedance layers may have a lower acoustic impedance than an acoustic impedance of the first higher-impedance layer or an acoustic impedance of the second higher-impedance layer. At least one low-impedance layer may have a thickness corresponding to a multiple of a half wavelength at a peak frequency of the acoustic resonator. The peak frequency may be within a frequency range from 1 MHz. to 20 MHz.

A method includes emitting an ultrasound beam from an array of ultrasound transducers in a catheter placed in a blood pool in an organ. Echo signals reflected in response to the ultrasound beam are received in the array. Distinction is made in the echo signals between (i) first spectral signal components having Doppler shifts characteristic of blood and (ii) second spectral signal components having Doppler shifts characteristic of tissue of the organ. The first spectral signal components are suppressed relative to the second spectral signal components in the echo signals. An ultrasound image of at least a portion of the organ is reconstructed from the echo signals having the suppressed first spectral signal components. The reconstructed image is displayed to a user.

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes a two-dimensional (2D) array ultrasound probe configured to emit focused beams onto focusing points and detect echo signals; and a processor configured to determine the focusing points on a cross-section of interest and acquire shear wave elasticity data with respect to the cross-section of interest based on the detected echo signals.

An ultrasonic image is obtained from a bias-switchable row-column array transducer. A row channel data set is obtained by applying a bias voltage pattern to groups of row electrodes, the bias voltage pattern being chosen such that row electrodes within each group have the same bias voltage; transmitting a waveform along each of the plurality of row electrodes; and recording received column signals from each of the plurality of column electrodes. A column channel data set is obtained by applying a bias voltage pattern to groups of column electrodes, the bias voltage pattern being chosen such that column electrodes within each group have the same bias voltage; transmitting a waveform along each of the plurality of column electrodes; and recording received row signals from each of the plurality of row electrodes.

A steerable multi-plane ultrasound imaging system (MPUIS) for steering a plurality of intersecting image planes (PL.sub.1 . . . n) of a beamforming ultrasound imaging probe (BUIP) based on ultrasound signals transmitted between the beamforming ultrasound imaging probe (BUIP) and an ultrasound transducer (S) disposed within a field of view (FOV) of the probe (BUIP). An ultrasound tracking system (UTS) causes the beamforming ultrasound imaging probe (BUIP) to adjust an orientation of the first image plane (PL.sub.1) such that a first image plane passes through a position (POS) of the ultrasound transducer (S) by maximizing a magnitude of ultrasound signals transmitted between the beamforming ultrasound imaging probe (BUIP) and the ultrasound transducer (S). An orientation of a second image plane (PL.sub.2) is adjusted such that an intersection (AZ) between the first image plane and the second image plane passes through the position of the ultrasound transducer (S).

A system for coherence imaging may receive ultrasound signals each having a respective delay associated with a respective ultrasonic transducer element in an ultrasonic transducer array. The system may obtain an approximation of the auto-correlation of ultrasound signals without any auto-correlation calculation, and determine the output image based on the approximation. In approximating the auto-correlation, the system may group the ultrasound signals into multiple portions, each corresponding to a respective sub-aperture of a plurality of sub-apertures of the ultrasonic transducer array. The system may determine a coherent sum of signals for each sub-aperture, perform a square operation or magnitude square operation over the coherent sum to obtain resulting data, normalize the resulting data, and sum the resulting data for all of the sub-apertures to generate the output image. A sub-aperture in the plurality of sub-apertures may overlap with another sub-aperture.

A method for calculating a reference value of an ultrasonic sensor includes: transmitting a first ultrasonic signal from the ultrasonic sensor toward a first surface of a contact device while an object is positioned on the first surface; generating a plurality of ultrasonic images based on a first ultrasonic echo signal; selecting an ultrasonic image having a highest similarity to a reference image from among the ultrasonic images; storing a first parameter and a second parameter corresponding to a selected ultrasonic image; while the object is not positioned on the first surface, transmitting a second ultrasonic signal based on the first parameter from the ultrasonic sensor toward the first surface; and calculating the reference value of the ultrasonic sensor using the second parameter and a second ultrasonic echo signal.