JPS61272037A - Ultrasonic diagnostic 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] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a mechanical scanner type ultrasonic diagnostic device,
In particular, it relates to the generation of ultrasonic scanning pulses.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems] Conventionally, mechanical scanner type ultrasonic diagnostic equipment detects the position of a foot sound transducer that generates ultrasonic waves by detecting only the rising part of a pulse from a position detector, such as a rotary encoder. It was used as location information. However, as shown in Fig. 4, the pulse output of the rotary encoder etc. has two outputs: the A phase indicated by pH and the B phase indicated by PI3. Since the position information pulse shown at P13 in the figure was generated by capturing only that part, there is a limit to the resolution of the pulse that can be extracted in one revolution of the rotary encoder, so it is impossible to expect more accurate position information. there were. Conventionally, the position information pulses have been selected and scanned with a sufficient margin for error in the position information pulses so that the interval between ultrasonic scans does not become less than a predetermined value. In other words, since an error occurs in the interval of position information pulses of the foot sound wave transducer due to the motor speed, the rotation speed of the motor (rotary encoder) is kept low in order to guarantee the depth of field of ultrasonic waves to a certain predetermined value. For this reason, the scanning interval time has become longer, and as a result, the time required to construct an ultrasound screen has become longer, impairing real-time performance and causing problems in ultrasound diagnosis.

For example, as shown in FIG. If an ultrasonic scanning line is required every time, the pulse shown at P14 in the figure should be generated, but since the position information pulse has an error, P14 may be generated.
Ple
The repeated pulse of the ultrasonic scanning line shown by (hereinafter referred to as RATE pulse) was set as pulse P, 16 after counting two pulses in consideration of an error. For this reason, R.A.
There was a problem that the TE pulse was longer than necessary and it took too much time to construct one ultrasound screen.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus with high resolution and high scanning speed.

[Summary of the Invention] The outline of the present invention for achieving the above object is to perform scanning based on position information obtained as pulses from a position detector that detects the position of a foot sound wave transducer in a mechanical scanner type ultrasonic diagnostic device. a pulse increasing circuit that increases the resolution of the position information; a rate pulse generating circuit that counts output pulses from the pulse increasing circuit and generates a rate pulse at every predetermined count value; a reference pulse generation circuit that generates a reference pulse having a period, and the rate pulse generation circuit generates a rate pulse generator based on the output from the reference pulse generation circuit when the interval between the position information pulses becomes smaller than a predetermined value. It is characterized by having a function of generating rate pulses.

[Embodiment J of the Invention FIG. 1 shows a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention. In the figure, a position detector 1, such as a rotary encoder, a position information pulse increasing circuit 2 that generates pulses based on the pulses generated by the position detector 1, and a position information pulse increasing circuit 2 that generates pulses based on the pulses generated by the position detector 1. Rate (RATE) which is the repeated pulse of the ultrasonic scanning line based on the pulse
RATE pulse generation circuit 3 that generates pulses and this R
The RATE pulse generated by the ATE pulse generation circuit 3 is
It is comprised of a reference pulse generation circuit, such as a one-shot multivibrator circuit 4, which generates a reference pulse instead of this RATE pulse when the time is shorter than a predetermined time t2. Note that the rate pulse generation circuit 3 normally counts a predetermined number of output pulses C from the position information pulse increase circuit 2 and outputs a rate pulse, and also outputs a rate pulse when the position information pulse interval becomes smaller than the reference pulse interval. has a function of generating rate pulses based on the reference pulses from the one-shot multivibrator 4, which is a reference pulse generation circuit. Also, a and b indicate pulses A phase and B phase output from the rotary encoder, respectively.

What is shown by the C phase is a position information pulse, and what is shown by d is a RATE pulse.

FIG. 2 is an embodiment of a timing diagram of the pulse increasing circuit of the present invention. In the figure, pulses indicated by Pl indicate the A phase of the rotary encoder, and pulses indicated by Pl indicate the 8 phases of the rotary encoder. By capturing and synthesizing both the rising edge and falling edge of the A-phase and 8-phase pulses, it is possible to generate the position information pulse shown as P3 and improve the position resolution. For example, in this embodiment, It is possible to obtain four times the resolution of conventional methods.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a timing diagram of the RATE pulse generation circuit of the present invention. The figure shows the cycle t1 of the ideal position information pulse, the limit cycle [2] of the RATE pulse corresponding to this cycle t1, the pulse P4 indicating the timing of the ideal position information pulse, and the ideal position information A pulse period t1, and a pulse P5 indicating the timing of the RATE pulse when the relationship between the two is t2=3t1,
A pulse P6 indicating that the period of the position information pulse is smaller than the period t1, a pulse P7 indicating the timing of the pulse generated in the reference pulse generating circuit, for example, the one-shot multi-by-break circuit 4, and this pulse P7. A pulse P8 indicating a RATE pulse generated at the timing shown, a pulse P9 indicating a state where the period of the position information pulse is larger than the period t1, and a pulse R generated at this time.
Consists of pulse P1[1 indicating the ATE pulse.

According to the above configuration, for example, if there is an error in the position information pulse and this position information pulse is the king, then T<[2
In the case where the timing is indicated by pulse P6, the next RAT occurs at the falling edge of the pulse indicated by P7 generated by the one-shot multivibrator 4.
The E pulse is generated as shown by P8. Also T>
In pulse P9 indicating the case of j2, a RATE pulse indicated by pulse PIO is generated using the initially determined position information pulse. With this RATE pulse generation circuit, the number of scanning lines becomes (ideal value - 1) or more if the position information pulse does not have an error of ±t1 or more. This means that - if the number of scan lines of the ultrasound screen is constant, a higher frame rate can be obtained. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the number of rotations of the rotary encoder is always constant, but this number of rotations does not always have to be constant;
Even when the rotational speed changes depending on the encoder position and the position information pulse interval changes, the limit period [2 is constant, so the only change is the number of position information pulses at which the RATE pulse is output. Therefore, similar effects can be obtained in this case as well.

The present invention is not limited to the one embodiment described above, but can be implemented with various modifications within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, the present invention obtains a pulse as position information from a position detector of a mechanical scanner type ultrasonic diagnostic device, and when performing ultrasonic scanning using this pulse, the pulse as position information is obtained. By increasing the number of pulses and performing ultrasonic scanning without the error of the position information pulse interval, it is possible to shorten the time for configuring the ultrasound screen and obtain better real-time performance, thereby improving diagnostic accuracy. It is possible to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic device whose performance can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a timing diagram of output pulses of the pulse increasing circuit of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a timing diagram of output pulses of the RATE pulse generation circuit of the present invention, and FIG. The figure is a timing diagram of a conventional position information pulse, and FIG. 5 is a timing diagram of an output pulse of a conventional RATE pulse generation circuit. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Position detector, 2...Position information pulse increase circuit, 3...Rate pulse generation circuit, 4...Reference pulse generation circuit. Agent Patent Attorney Noriyuki Chika (1 idiot) Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a mechanical scanner type ultrasonic diagnostic device, when scanning is performed based on position information obtained as a pulse from a position detector that detects the position of a foot sound wave transducer, a pulse increase circuit that increases the resolution of the position information; a rate pulse generation circuit that counts output pulses from the pulse increase circuit and generates a rate pulse every predetermined count value;
a reference pulse generation circuit that generates a reference pulse having a predetermined period, and the rate pulse generation circuit generates a signal from the reference pulse generation circuit when the interval between the position information pulses becomes smaller than a predetermined value. An ultrasonic diagnostic device characterized by having a function of generating rate pulses based on the output of the .