Portable ultrasound imaging system

Abstract

A portable ultrasound imaging system includes a scan head coupled by a cable to a portable battery-powered data processor and display unit. The scan head enclosure houses an array of ultrasonic transducers and the circuitry associated therewith, including pulse synchronizer circuitry used in the transmit mode for transmission of ultrasonic pulses and beam forming circuitry used in the receive mode to dynamically focus reflected ultrasonic signals returning from the region of interest being imaged.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An ultrasound imaging system comprising:
 a hand-held probe housing having a transducer array circuit including a transducer array that detects ultrasound signals;   a sampling circuit that samples detected ultrasound signals to generate sampled ultrasound signals;   a beamformer integrated circuit that delays the sampled ultrasound signals and generates delayed, sampled ultrasound signals;   a control circuit that generates delay signals;   a hand-held data processor housing having a memory, a battery and a data processor, the data processor generating ultrasound images from the electronic representation of the region of interest with a graphical user interface (GUI);   a cable electronically connecting the hand-held probe housing to the hand-held data processor housing; and   a display on the hand-held data processor housing for displaying ultrasound images with the graphical-user interface, the ultrasound images being transferred to the display using the data processor.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the hand-held probe housing comprises at least one of a linear array probe, a curved array probe, and a phased array probe. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising a second cable connecting an interface circuit and the probe housing. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the beamformer circuit further comprises a charge coupled device (CCD) beamformer circuit. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising an analog to digital converter such that digital data is directed to the data processor. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the data processor further comprises a personal computer. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the hand-held data processor housing further comprises a laptop computer. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the data processor further comprises a Doppler processor. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising a filter that filters the electronic representation. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising a demodulator that demodulates the ultrasound signals. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising a beamformer control circuit in the data processor housing that sends beamformer control signals to the beamformer integrated circuit that is positioned in the probe housing. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the beamformer circuit further comprises a plurality of programmable tapped delay lines. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the battery provides power to the data processor. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising a scan conversion circuit that converts the electronic representation from polar coordinates to rectangular coordinates. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the data processor housing further comprises a keyboard and the display comprises a flat panel display. 
     
     
         16 . An ultrasound imaging system comprising:
 a hand-held probe housing having a transducer array, the transducer array receiving signals from a region of interest and that generates an input signal;   a beam transmission integrated circuit that controls transmission of ultrasound signals by the transducer array;   a sampling circuit that samples the input signal to generate sampled ultrasound signals;   a beamformer integrated circuit that delays the sampled ultrasound signals to generate delayed, sampled ultrasound signals;   a control circuit that generates delay signals that are stored in a first memory; and   a cable that connects the hand-held probe housing to a hand-held computer, the hand-held computer having a second memory, a battery, a data processor, and a liquid crystal display such that the electronic representation is processed with the data processor to generate ultrasound images using a graphical user interface, the ultrasound images being displayed on the display.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the hand-held probe housing comprises at least one of a linear array probe, a curved array probe, and a phased array probe. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16  further comprising a second cable that connects an interface unit and the probe housing. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the beamformer integrated circuit further comprises a charge coupled device (CCD) beamformer circuit. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the computer is adapted to execute a scan conversion program. 
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the computer comprises a laptop computer. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the data processor further comprises a Doppler processor. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 16  further comprising a filter in the hand-held computer that filters the delayed signals. 
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 16  further comprising a demodulator that demodulates the delayed signals. 
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 16  further comprising a beamformer control circuit that transmits signals from the computer to the beamformer integrated circuit that is positioned in the probe housing. 
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the transducer array comprises a plurality of rows, each row comprising a linear array. 
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the transducer array comprises a plurality of parallel rows such that one of the rows is longer than another row. 
     
     
         28 . The system of  claim 16  further comprising a virtual control panel. 
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the computer further comprises a Windows® operating system. 
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 16  further comprising a disk data storage system such that images can be stored on a disk. 
     
     
         31 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the display comprises a flat panel display. 
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the probe housing, cable and computer have a weight not exceeding ten pounds. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the computer further comprises a doppler processor. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 16  further comprising a modem for remote transmission of image data. 
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the battery provides power to the computer and the probe housing.