JPS59174148A - Electronic scanning type ultrasonic tomographic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an electronically scanned ultrasonic tomography apparatus, and in particular to an ultrasonic tomography apparatus that is highly economical and can reduce the number of wave transmission drive circuits and reception amplification circuits for array transducers. This invention relates to a Naruko scanning ultrasonic tomography device.

[Prior art]

An electronic scanning ultrasonic tomography device (hereinafter simply referred to as an "ultrasonic tomography device") moves an ultrasonic beam to perform linear or fan-shaped scanning by controlling the amplitude and phase of an array transducer. It is used to take tomographic images of target objects.
The object of the present invention is an ultrasonic tomography apparatus that performs the former type of linear scanning.

In an ultrasonic tomography apparatus that performs linear scanning, a predetermined number of transducers are selected from among a large number of transducers arranged in a linear manner, and the ultrasonic beams sent out from these transducers are Scanning is performed by sending out ultrasonic pulses by giving a phase difference to each sensor so as to converge on the center position of several transducers, and sequentially moving the selected group of transducers.

In the conventional ultrasonic tomography apparatus, the above-mentioned operation was performed as follows. That is, a predetermined number of transducers (corresponding to one transmitting/receiving aperture) are selected by the first switching device from all the elements of the array transducer, and the total number of elements within the above transmitting/receiving aperture is selected. The number of wave transmitting drive circuits and wave receiving amplifier circuits equal to the number of wave receiving amplifier circuits was allocated.

For this reason, problems have arisen in that the scale of the apparatus is large and the cost of the apparatus is increased.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to solve the above-mentioned problems in conventional ultrasonic tomography devices, and to arrange the wave transmission drive circuit and reception amplification circuit for the array transducer. The object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic tomography device that is highly economical and whose number can be reduced.

[Summary of the invention]

The main point of the present invention is that in an ultrasonic tomography device that performs linear scanning, the ultrasonic beam is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the array transducer, so the amplitude and phase of the array element within the transmitting and receiving aperture are the same as the aperture. The point is that two elements located at symmetrical positions with respect to the center within the transmitting/receiving aperture are controlled in combination by taking advantage of the fact that they are symmetrical with respect to the center.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the main parts of an ultrasonic tomography apparatus that is an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is the total number of elements m
2 is a first switch that selects the number of transmitting and receiving elements (n: positive integer), and 3 is a second switch that uses central symmetry of the transmitting and receiving aperture. 4 is a receiving amplifier, 5 is a receiving phaser, 6 is a detection and compression circuit, 7 is a display, 8 is a transmitting drive circuit, and 9 is a transmitting phaser. In addition, here, to simplify the explanation,
The transmitting aperture and the receiving aperture were made the same, and the number of array elements was made an even number.

The 21st case shows an example of the configuration of the first switching device 2 when n=2, that is, the transmitting/receiving aperture is 4, and IL m=1.
121... (indicated up to 13 in the figure) are array elements %31 to S4 are the outputs of the first switch 2, 20
indicates a ring counter. The ring counter 20 necessarily moves a pattern (1111) to the right in the figure for each control signal CK, and the control signal CK is a signal generated whenever the ultrasonic beam is moved. When the output of the ring counter 20 is 11#, the first
When the contact point at the intersection of the outputs 81-84 of the switch and the array element m (0 mark in Fig. 2 (4)) is ON, the ring counter 2
When the output of 0 is '0', it is OFF.

The first switching device 2 configured as described above allows 2n (i.e. 4) fixed outputs (1), (2), . . . ...- are obtained sequentially. The contents of the ring counter 20 corresponding to the outputs (1), (2), .・・・・・・
・In order to generate a phase difference to converge the above outputs (1), (2), ..., it is necessary to provide a delay time as shown in Figure 2 ■. It will be easily understood. Pi and P3 indicate a situation where the transmitting/receiving phase data to be compensated changes due to aperture movement.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration example and operation of the second switching device 3, which is a main part of the present invention. In the case of X=2, there are four types of phase data, P1 to P4, so it is necessary to provide the second switch 3 as shown in the figure, and make this into two types of patterns that are symmetrical about the center of the transmitting and receiving aperture. be able to. FIG. 4 shows the connection status of switches SW1-8W4 corresponding to phases P1-P4. In FIG. 4, contact points aT b, ·
...The circle mark attached to h indicates that the contact is ON. The operation of this embodiment when transmitting at phase P1 will be described below. As shown in FIG. 4, for the phase P1, the contacts a1 of the switch SWI, the contacts a1 of the switch SWI, the contacts C1 of the switch 8W2, the contact e of the switch SW3 of the switch SWI, and the contact g of the switch SW4 are turned ON. Accordingly, the first phase signal t, (
OEP) is the output S1 outputted via the contact e of the switch SW3 and the contact C1 of the switch SW3 mentioned above;
The second phase signal t2 (x mark) is converted into the output S4 outputted through the contact a of the switch SW4 and the output S4 outputted through the contact gk of the switch SW4.
It is converted into an output 82 which is outputted via contact g1 of W4 and contact C of SW2. That is, four outputs 81-84 of phase P1 can be produced from two phase signals '1r'2.

The same holds true for transmitting operations for other phases.

Furthermore, when performing reception, it becomes possible to process two inputs symmetrical about the center of the transmitting/receiving aperture using one receiving circuit.

Each of the switches SWI to SW4 may have a configuration as shown in FIG. 5, for example. In Figure 5,
10.11 is the input terminal of the switch, 12 is the output terminal, CP is the capacitor, DII and DI2 are diodes, approximately 1. R2 is a resistor, and 13.14 is a control signal input terminal. In the above-described configuration, it is assumed that the control signal 13 is, for example, more than +1V, and the control signal 14 is less than -150V. Now, if we consider the case where a negative high voltage voltage signal of about -100V is input to the terminal 10.11 as an input signal, the terminal 1011
The signal of 11 passes through the diode DII and is output to the output terminal 12.
However, the signal on the terminal 11 side does not pass through the diode DI2. That is, diode DII is ON, DI
2 is OFF.

In the apparatus of this embodiment equipped with the second switching device 3 as described above, the receiving amplifier 4, the receiving phaser 5,
As shown in FIG. 1, the number of the wave transmission drive circuit 8 and the wave transmission phaser 9 can be equal to i, which is the number of elements within the wave transmission/reception aperture.

In the above embodiment, the case where n=2 was taken as an example, but
It goes without saying that the value of n may be 3 or more.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, in an ultrasonic cutting device that performs linear scanning, the amplitude and phase of the array elements within the transmitting and receiving aperture are symmetrical with respect to the center of the aperture. By controlling the combination of elements located symmetrically with respect to the center within the transmitting and receiving aperture, it is possible to halve the number of transmitting drive circuits and receiving amplifier circuits relative to the number of elements. This has the effect of realizing a highly economical ultrasonic tomography device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the main parts of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 (4) is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the first switch, and FIG. 2 (6) is a diagram showing its operation. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the second switch, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing its operation, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration array of switches. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Array vibrator, 2... First switching device, 3...
2nd switching device, 4... Receiving amplifier, 5... Receiving phaser, 6... Detection, compression circuit, 7... Display, 8...
・Wave transmission drive circuit, 'fJ i Figure 2 Exit (A) 14th Kensaiuchi No. 3! Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an electronic scanning ultrasonic tomography device that moves an ultrasonic beam by controlling the amplitude and phase of each element of an array transducer, the signal line connected to each element within the transmitting and receiving aperture is used as an input, and the An electronic scanning ultrasonic tomography apparatus comprising a switching means for commonly connecting signal lines of two elements located symmetrically with respect to the center of a transmitting/receiving aperture.