JPH0484943A - Electronic scan type ultrasonic diagnostic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the scanning line density without enlarging a circuit scale by selecting a vibrator group of a desired aperture portion from plural vibrators, dividing it into plural blocks consisting of a prescribed number of pieces of vibrators, and connecting each block to a transmitting/receiving circuit of a one-channel portion. CONSTITUTION:A probe 2 is constituted at a minute vibrator pitch so as to obtain high scanning line density at the time of enlargement to the maximum, and by a first selecting circuit 3, 16 pieces of continuous vibrators E1-E16 are selected from all vibrators E1-E64 in order to form a desired ultrasonic beam. By switching the selection of the vibration group by this first selecting circuit 3, an electronic scan of an ultrasonic wave can be executed. Subsequently, the vibrators E1-E16 in the vibrator group selected first by a second selecting circuit 4 are subjected to blocking by plural pieces each, and also, each block is connected so as to become one channel, and they are selected to transmitting receiving circuits 5a-5d of every channel. In such a way, the number of driving vibrators per one beam can be increased by exceeding the limit of the number of channels of the device 1, and the scanning line density can be enhanced without increasing the circuit scale.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an electronic scanning ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that performs electronic scanning by sequentially driving a plurality of transducers constituting an ultrasonic probe.

[Conventional technology]

In an ultrasound diagnostic device, a probe emits an ultrasound beam toward a living body, and the probe receives reflected echoes from inside the living body.After processing this received signal in the ultrasound diagnostic device itself, it is displayed on the display. Fault data etc. are displayed. In such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, electronic scanning is performed in order to change the direction or position of an ultrasonic beam or to set a focus at a predetermined position.

Electronic scanning includes linear (including conhex) scanning, sector scanning, and the like. A probe for performing electronic scanning is composed of a plurality of micro oscillators. For example, when performing linear scanning, how many of the micro-oscillators constituting the probe transmit and receive waves at the same time, and the groups are sequentially moved. In such electronic linear scanning, it is necessary to increase the scanning line density in order to increase the horizontal resolution. Conventionally, it has been considered to use a small angle sector method in order to increase the scanning line density, but this small angle sector method has a drawback in that the ultrasonic beams intersect.

Therefore, recently, the pitch of the vibrator has been reduced to increase the scanning line density.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

When the scanning line density is increased as described above, there is a problem in that the frame rate of the image decreases. Therefore, a method is used in which scanning is performed at a low scanning line density when the image is displayed in a reduced size, and scanned at a high scanning line density when the image is displayed in an enlarged size.

Since the field of view becomes narrower when the image is enlarged, there is an advantage that deterioration of the frame rate can be suppressed even if the scanning line density is increased.

However, in recent years, there has been a demand to further increase the magnification of images, and for this reason, it has become necessary to further increase the scanning line density. However, in order to transmit and receive a single ultrasonic beam, it is necessary to set an appropriate beam diameter, and if the pitch of the transducer is made smaller to increase the scanning line density, the vibration per beam decreases. There is a problem in that the number of child transmitting/receiving systems, that is, the number of channels increases, resulting in an increase in circuit scale.

An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic scanning ultrasound system that can increase the scanning line density during electronic scanning without increasing the circuit scale, and that can perform high-density scanning and increase horizontal resolution especially during enlarged display. The objective is to provide diagnostic equipment.

[Means to solve the problem]

The electronic scanning ultrasound diagnostic device according to the present invention performs electronic scanning by sequentially driving a plurality of transducers constituting an ultrasound probe, and includes a first selection circuit and a second selection circuit. .

The first selection circuit is a circuit for selecting a vibrator group of a desired diameter from a plurality of vibrators.

The second selection circuit is a circuit that divides the transducer group selected by the first selection circuit into a plurality of blocks each consisting of a predetermined number of transducers, and connects each block to a transmitting/receiving circuit for one channel. be.

[Effect]

In the present invention, first, the probe is constructed with a fine transducer pitch so that a high scanning line density can be obtained when the probe is expanded to the maximum. Then, the first selection circuit selects a predetermined number of transducers from all the transducers in order to form a desired ultrasonic beam.

By switching the selection of the transducer group using this first selection circuit, electronic ultrasonic scanning can be performed. Also the second
In the selection circuit, the transducers of the previously selected transducer group are divided into multiple blocks, each block is connected to form one channel, and these are selected as the transmitter/receiver circuit for each channel. .

This makes it possible to increase the number of drive transducers per beam beyond the limit on the number of channels in the device, and to increase the scanning line density without increasing the circuit scale.

For example, a case where the number of channels on the device side is "4" and 16 vibrators are driven to transmit and receive - beams will be explained using FIG. 4 as an example. First, the first selection circuit selects the vibrator E*""'Ew+ls and connects it to the signal line 5l-315. Next, in the second selection circuit, S1 to S4. S5-S8. S9-S12. S1
3 to S16 are respectively connected to block signals from the 16 transducers into four blocks, and each block is designated as channel 1 to channel 4. If you do this, the first selection circuit will convert E H"" E * + ls→E
lie l /Q E K+ I b→Ell+□〜
If you switch E z + 17→..., high-density scanning becomes E M - E )l + l S→E
M+□～E k+ 17→E H* 4～E1□→・・
・・・・Furthermore, E, %E, ++, →E, Col E*
r a-+E * 4 &〜E, +□→・・・・・・
If you switch to , it will be a coarse scan. Therefore, for example, the selected movement amount (scanning) is changed for each transducer, every two transducers, every three transducers, etc., depending on the magnification ratio of the image display.

Next, in the second selection circuit, according to the selection of the transducers in the first selection circuit, blocks are formed such that each four transducers from the end form one channel.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, a probe 2 is detachably connected to a diagnostic device main body l. The probe 2 is composed of a plurality of micro oscillators Ei (i=1 to 64), and in this example, it is composed of 64 oscillators.

The diagnostic device main body 1 includes a first selection circuit 3 and a second selection circuit 4.
, a wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5a to 5d for four channels, a wave transmitting control circuit 6, a wave receiving combining and shaping circuit 7, a display signal generating circuit 8, and a monitor 9.

The first selection circuit 3 is a circuit for selecting a continuous group of 16 transducers from all the transducers E1 to E64 in order to form an ultrasound beam of a desired diameter. Further, the second selection circuit 4 blocks the 16 transducers selected by the first selection circuit 3 into four blocks, and each block is connected to the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5a.
This is a circuit for connecting to any of the following. The wave transmitting/receiving circuits 5a to 5d each have a similar configuration, and are composed of a wave transmitting generation and delay circuit 10, an amplifier 11, and a receiving wave shaping and delay circuit 12. Transmission control circuit 6
is a circuit for controlling the amount of delay of the wave transmission generation and delay circuit 10, etc. The receiving wave synthesis and shaping circuit 7 is a circuit for phasing and adding the received wave data from each of the wave transmitting/receiving circuits 5a to 5d, and also performs waveform shaping processing. Further, the display signal generation circuit 8 is a circuit for converting the output signal from the receiving wave synthesis and shaping circuit 7 into a signal that can be displayed on the monitor 9.

The first selection circuit 3 includes a plurality of multiplexers 13a to 13p and a vibrator selection signal generation circuit 14, as shown in FIG. Each multiplexer 13a
-13p is connected to four oscillators, and one of the four oscillators is selected. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the second selection circuit 4 is connected between the output of the first selection circuit 3 and the transmitting/receiving circuits 5a to 5d (with a plurality of switches SWI to 5W16 provided therein and to each of these switches). It is composed of a switch control circuit 15 for controlling on/off of the 5WI-3W16.

Next, the operation will be explained.

First, the first selection circuit 3 selects all the oscillators El to E64.
Select 16 arbitrary consecutive oscillators from . This selection is performed by multiplexers 13a-13p controlled by control signals from the transducer selection signal generation circuit 14. For example, the first multiplexer 13a
, and connect this vibrator E1 and signal line S1.

Further, the second multiplexer 13b selects the vibrator E2 and connects it to the signal IIIAS2. The vibrators are successively selected in the following order, and vibrator El-E16 is selected.

These signal lines 31 to S16 are divided into blocks of four by the second selection circuit 4, and each block is connected to the wave transmitting/receiving circuits 5a to 5d of channels 1 to 4. As in the above example, the first selection circuit 3 selects the oscillators E1 to
When E16 is selected, switch control circuit 1
5 to switch SW4. SW8, 5W12, 5W1
6 is turned off (open) and the remaining switches are turned on (closed). Then, the oscillators E1 to E4 and the first channel CHI
The transducer circuit 5a of the second channel CH2 is connected to the transducer E5 to E8, and the transducer circuit 5b of the second channel CH2 is connected to the transducer E9.
~E12 and the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5c of the third channel CH3, furthermore, the transducers E13 to E16 and the fourth channel CH4
are connected to the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5d.

In this way, the vibrator is selected, and the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5a
The operation after the connection control with ~5c is performed is the same as the conventional one. That is, the ultrasonic beams are transmitted from each of the transducers El to E16, and these transducers E1 to E1
After the reflected echo is received at 6 and processed in each circuit,
Echo data is displayed on monitor 9.

Next, the first multiplexer 13a selects the signal from the vibrator E17 and connects it to the signal line SL in response to a control signal from the vibrator selection signal generation circuit I4. Similarly, the second multiplexer 13b selects the signal from the oscillator E2 and connects it to the signal line S2 in the same manner as described above, and eventually the oscillators E2 to E
17 of 16 consecutive vibrators are connected to signal lines 31-
Connect with 316. As a result, the previous oscillators E1 to E1
A group of transducers shifted by one transducer pitch from 6 is selected.

When the signals of the oscillators E2 to E17 are selected in this way, the second selection circuit 4 uses the switches SWI, SW5, SW9, 5W13 by the switch control circuit 15.
off and the rest on. As a result, the oscillator E
2 to E5 are connected to the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5a of the first channel CHI, and oscillators E6 to E9 are connected to the second channel CH2.
The transducers EIO to E13 are connected to the transducer circuit 5b of the third channel CH3, and the transducers E14 to E1 are connected to the transducer circuit 5c of the third channel CH3.
7 are respectively connected to the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5d of the fourth channel CH4.

Similarly, by selectively controlling the transducer selection signal generation circuit 14 and the switch 1iIlIB circuit 15, scanning can be performed for each transducer pitch, and the selected transducer can be blocked into four wave transmitting/receiving circuits. It is possible to convert and connect.

[Other Examples]

(a) In the above embodiment, four transducers are blocked into one channel, so the signal line S4 and the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5a, the signal line S8 and the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5b, the signal line S12 and the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5c, The signal line S16 and the wave transmitting/receiving circuit 5d are each directly connected. However, when blocking two transducers into one channel, for example, the signal line 5L-
316 may be connected to the transmitting/receiving circuit of each channel every other channel.

In addition, a selection circuit is provided after the second selection circuit that can change the number of transducers that are blocked as one channel, and the number of transducers that make up one block can be changed arbitrarily by external settings. You can do it like this.

In the above embodiment, the diameter of the pimple is fixed, but the present invention can be similarly applied to the case where a variable diameter is employed.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment in which a switch is provided in the transmitting wave generation and delay circuit 10 and the receiving wave shaping and delay circuit 12, so that different variable apertures can be performed for transmitting and receiving waves. be.

In this example, the transmission generation and delay circuit 10 includes a transmission generation circuit 16, a delay circuit 17, and a switch circuit 18. Further, the receiving wave shaping and delay circuit 12 includes a switch circuit I9, a receiving wave shaping circuit 20, and a delay circuit 21.
It is composed of.

In the embodiment having such a configuration, by turning off (opening) the switch circuit 18 or 19, the beam diameter during wave transmission or wave reception can be reduced.

(C) Also, as shown in FIG.
It is also possible to provide a switch circuit 22 between the wave transmitting/receiving circuits 5a to 5d to change the aperture. However, in the example shown in FIG. 6, the apertures for transmitting and receiving waves are the same, and cannot be changed for transmitting and receiving waves.

(b) The configuration of the present invention can be similarly applied to other linear scanning electronic scanning systems, such as convex scanning and concave scanning, and also to cases where a deflected beam is linearly scanned.

(e) FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the first selection circuit and the second selection circuit.

In this embodiment, by controlling each switch of the selection circuit 23 on and off, a predetermined number of consecutive oscillator groups are selected as the oscillator E4, and furthermore, the multiplexer of the selection circuit 24 blocks the signal lines into the number of channels. become

This embodiment also allows the number of wave transmitting/receiving circuits to be reduced relative to the number of vibrators.

(f) In the embodiment described above, scanning was performed by shifting by l transducer pitch, but scanning may be performed by shifting by two transducer pitches or three transducer pitches, for example.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, in the present invention, it is possible to increase the number of driving vibrators per l beam beyond the limit of the number of channels of the device, and it is possible to increase the scanning line density during linear scanning. In particular, it is possible to perform high-density scanning during enlarged display, and the horizontal resolution can be improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic scanning ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of its first selection circuit, and FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of its first selection circuit. A circuit diagram of a selection circuit, FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of selecting a vibrator, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are circuit diagrams of other embodiments of the present invention for realizing a variable aperture, respectively. FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Diagnosis device main body, 2... Probe, 3... First selection circuit, 4... Second selection circuit, 5a-5d...
Transmission/reception circuit, E... Vibrator, 13a-13p...
Multiplexer, 14... vibrator selection signal generation circuit,
15...Switch control circuit. Patent applicant Shimadzu Corporation Representative Patent attorney Yukio Ono

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that performs electronic scanning by sequentially driving a plurality of transducers constituting an ultrasonic probe, a first selection for selecting a transducer group of a desired diameter from the plurality of transducers. a second selection circuit that divides the transducer group selected by the first selection circuit into a plurality of blocks each consisting of a predetermined number of transducers, and connects each block to a transmitting/receiving circuit for one channel; , an electronic scanning ultrasound diagnostic device.