System and method for performing progressive beamforming

Abstract

A progressive beamformer in an imaging system includes a number of stages. A first stage delays and combines a number of received data streams to align the streams to a point of interest on a first beamline. The first stage feeds a number of subsequent stages that operate to buffer and re-delay at least a portion of the data streams received from a previous stage in order to align the data streams to a point of interest on a new beamline. In one embodiment, each stage operates to reduce the number of data streams that are passed to a subsequent stage without suffering from grating lobes. A beam reclamation process includes a number of stages that receive data streams from end elements in order to produce reclaimed beams that are added to beamline produced in a mainline beamforming process in order to produce output beamlines.

1 . An imaging system, comprising:
 memory for buffering a number of data streams of signals produced by transducer elements; and   a number of stages, each including processor electronics operable to delay and combine at least a portion of data in the buffered data streams to align data to a point on a beamline within a field of view, wherein the processor electronics for stages after a first stage are operable to buffer and re-delay at least a portion of the data streams from a previous stage to align the data to a point on a new beamline, reduce the number of data streams that are aligned to a point on a beamline in a subsequent stage and increase an effective size of the transducer elements.   
     
     
         2 . The imaging system of  claim 1 , wherein the number of data streams is reduced in each stage by combining data streams using a weighted sum of neighboring data streams. 
     
     
         3 . The imaging system of  claim 1 , wherein the number of data streams is reduced by combining data streams with a non-linear combination of beams. 
     
     
         4 . The imaging system of  claim 3 , wherein the non-linear combination is selected from one or more of a maximum, a minimum and a median. 
     
     
         5 . The imaging system of  claim 2 , wherein alternating data streams are weighted with a 1-2-1 weighting of adjacent data streams. 
     
     
         6 . (canceled) 
     
     
         7 . The imaging system of  claim 2 , wherein the combining is performed in the analog domain. 
     
     
         8 . The imaging system of  claim 2 , wherein the combining is performed in the digital domain. 
     
     
         9 . The imaging system of  claim 2 , wherein the reduction of the number of data streams for a subsequent stage results in fewer streams than every other stream. 
     
     
         10 . The imaging system of  claim 1 , wherein each stage calculates data points for an increasing number of beamlines. 
     
     
         11 . The imaging system of  claim 1 , wherein each stage calculates data points for increasingly larger element spacings. 
     
     
         12 . The imaging system of  claim 1 , wherein each stage uses one or more delay tables to align the data streams on a beamline, wherein at least some of the delay tables are reused in later stages of the progressive beamformer. 
     
     
         13 . The imaging system of  claim 1 , wherein the signals in the data streams are acoustic signals. 
     
     
         14 . The imaging system of  claim 1 , wherein the signals in the data stream are electromagnetic signals. 
     
     
         15 . A progressive beamforming system, including:
 a series of stages including a first stage and a number of subsequent stages, wherein the first stage includes processor electronics that are configured to receive a number of data streams from transducer elements that represent signals from a field of view, wherein the processor electronics are configured to delay the data streams to align the data streams to a point of interest on a first beamline and to reduce the number of data streams;   wherein subsequent stages include processor electronics that are configured to receive data streams from a previous stage and to re-delay the received data streams to align the data streams to a point of interest on a new beamline and to reduce the number of data streams that are aligned to a point on a beamline in a subsequent stage.   
     
     
         16 . The progressive beamforming system of  claim 15 , wherein each stage reduces the number of data streams by weighting selected data streams with a weight that is greater amount than a weight applied to adjacent data streams and summing the data stream with its adjacent data streams. 
     
     
         17 . The progressive beamforming system of  claim 15 , wherein selected data stream are weighted with a weight that is twice the weight of its adjacent data streams. 
     
     
         18 . The progressive beamforming system of  claim 15 , wherein the beamlines produced are part of a mainline beamforming process and the system further includes a number of beam reclamation stages that receive data streams from a previous stage, buffer and re-delay the data streams to a new beam line and to add streams from end elements of a corresponding stage in the mainline beamforming process in order to produce a reclaimed beamline that is added back to a beamline produced in the mainline beamforming process in order to produce an output beamline. 
     
     
         19 . A beamformer comprising:
 a mainline progressive beamformer that is configured to delay digital signals from a transducer to focus the signals on a point of interest on a number of beamlines, wherein the mainline beamformer operates to re-delay stored signals that are focused on one beamline in order to focus the digital signals on a new beamline; and   an aperture reclamation beamformer that is configured to delay signals from end elements of a transducer and combine them with delayed signals from the mainline progressive beamformer in order to produce data for a point on a beamline.   
     
     
         20 . The beamformer of  claim 19 , wherein the mainline progressive beamformer is arranged in a number of stages, wherein each stage adds data for new beamlines. 
     
     
         21 . The beamformer of  claim 20 , wherein each stage after a 2nd stage is configured to add data for beamlines that are interleaved with data for previously computed beamlines. 
     
     
         22 - 24 . (canceled)