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Modern ultrasound systems are becoming increasingly electronically sophisticated. Modern computing has allowed system designers to incorporate a multitude of electronic techniques that improve both the ultrasound pulse and the way in which the ultrasound system receives and processes the echoes. A list of these techniques would include:
electronic beam steering
electronic focusing (both on transmission and reception)
dynamic apodization
dynamic aperture
harmonics
coded excitation
spatial compounding
frequency compounding
Some of these circuits operate on transmission to improve the characteristics of the ultrasonic pulse. Others work on reception to improve the reception and processing of the echoes. Taken together, all these circuits comprise what is known as the electronic "beamformer".
A simple schematic of the primary components of an ultrasound system:
P = pulser. the pulser generates the driving voltage that stimulates the transducer crystals
Beamformer = all the electronic circuits that steer, focus and refine the pulse, as well as the receive circuits that enhance the reception and processing of the echo signals
R= receiver (amplifies, compensates, compresses, demodulates, and rejects echo signals)
M=memory (stores echo signals and builds the ultrasound image)
D=display (the display device, typically a flat panel screen)
It is the continual advances in electronic beamforming that have led to the dramatic improvements in image quality we have witnessed in recent years. Long may it continue!
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