Dynamic focusing method and system for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasonic imaging
By preloading the delay data of the next focus in the transmit delay register and transmitting it directly to the receive delay register during the focus switching interval, combined with serial shifting and parallel configuration, the problem of insufficient chip area resources is solved, and efficient focus switching and high-quality 4D cardiac imaging are achieved.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-11-26
- Publication Date
- 2026-03-10
AI Technical Summary
In existing technologies, dynamic focusing technology consumes a large amount of chip area resources in 4D ultrasound imaging, especially in intracardiac ultrasound imaging, where chip area resources are limited and a large number of array elements are required, leading to prominent contradictions.
A multiplexing scheme of receive delay register and transmit delay register is adopted. By preloading the delay data of the next focus in the transmit delay register and transmitting it directly to the receive delay register during the focus switching interval, the focus switching time is shortened by combining serial shift and parallel configuration.
It greatly saves chip area resources, shortens focus change time, improves imaging frame rate and image quality, and meets the real-time requirements of 4D cardiac imaging.
Smart Images
Figure CN121622121A_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] This invention relates to the field of real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging (4D-ICE), and more particularly to a dynamic focusing method and system for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging. Background Technology
[0002] Medical ultrasound imaging has been widely used in clinical examinations and diagnoses due to its advantages such as real-time performance, no radiation, and low cost. As the requirements for ultrasound image quality become increasingly stringent, many technologies are being used to improve image quality. Dynamic focusing technology is one such technology. This technology can further improve image quality by dynamically adjusting the focal length to locate different focal points when receiving ultrasound signals in order to achieve a longer "focused" area.
[0003] In existing technologies, dynamic focusing technology is generally implemented through FPGAs or general-purpose chips. This requires a large number of registers to store the time delay of each element / channel at each focal point. For example, if there are 5 focal points and the number of elements / channels is 256, and each register stores 8 bits of time delay data, then 256 × 5 = 1280 8-bit registers are needed, which will occupy a large amount of chip area resources. In 4D ultrasound imaging technology, especially intracardiac ultrasound (ICE) imaging technology, custom-designed chips (ASICs) need to be placed in the catheter tip with a very small diameter (generally required to be less than 10 Fr (3.33 mm)), so chip area resources are extremely limited. At the same time, 4D ultrasound imaging technology also requires a large number of elements (nearly a thousand), and its demand for register resources is even stronger than that of existing technologies. A contradiction arises between the extreme constraints of chip area and the demand for a large number of registers. Summary of the Invention
[0004] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to overcome the defects of the existing technology. The present invention proposes a dynamic focusing method and system for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging.
[0005] To solve the above-mentioned technical problems, the present invention provides the following technical solution: In a first aspect, the present invention provides a dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging, comprising: Used to control the dynamic focusing of multiple array elements of an ultrasonic transducer array; Each array element is equipped with a receive delay register and a transmit delay register; During the reception period corresponding to the Nth focus, the delay of the received signal is achieved using the Nth focus delay data stored in the reception delay register of each array element; During the reception period of the Nth focus, the delay data of the N+1th focus is preloaded into the transmission delay register of each array element; After the reception period of the Nth focus ends and before the reception period of the N+1th focus begins, the delay data of the N+1th focus stored in the transmission delay register of each array element is transmitted in parallel to the corresponding reception delay register. During the reception period corresponding to the (N+1)th focus, the delay of the received signal is calculated using the updated delay data in the reception delay register.
[0006] Preferably, the step of preloading the N+1th focus delay data into the transmit delay register is performed by serial shifting, configuring the delay data into the transmit delay register of each array element.
[0007] Preferably, the serial shifting involves dividing the ultrasonic transducer array into multiple subarrays and simultaneously performing serial configuration of time delay data on multiple subarrays in parallel, wherein the time delay data is sequentially shifted into the time delay register of each array element through a shift register chain within each subarray.
[0008] Preferably, the transfer of the N+1th focus delay data from the transmit delay register to the receive delay register is completed within one clock cycle.
[0009] Preferably, each subarray contains at least 9 array elements, and each array element includes at least 16 subarrays, so as to reduce the serial transmission time to at least 9 clock cycles when configuring delayed data.
[0010] Preferably, the receive delay register and the transmit delay register are connected by a direct connection path to shorten the data transmission path and support focus switching within one clock cycle.
[0011] Secondly, the present invention provides a dynamic focusing system for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging, used to implement the aforementioned dynamic receiving method, comprising: The delay calculation unit is used to calculate the delay data corresponding to different receiving focal points; The array control unit contains control channels that correspond one-to-one with multiple array elements of the ultrasonic transducer array; Each of the control channels includes: A receive delay register is used to store the delay data required for the current receive focus; One transmit delay register is multiplexed as a buffer register for the next receive focus delay data; A direct connection path connects the output of the transmit delay register to the input of the receive delay register, used to load the delay data of the next receive focus into the receive delay register within one clock cycle during the focus switching interval; A delay data distribution network, connected to the array control unit, is used to distribute the delay data generated by the delay calculation unit to the transmit delay registers of each control channel.
[0012] Preferably, the delay data distribution network includes multiple shift register chains, each shift register chain corresponding to a subarray, for serially configuring delay data into the transmit delay registers of each element in the subarray, and the configuration process of multiple subarrays is executed in parallel.
[0013] Thirdly, the present invention provides an electronic device, comprising: Memory and processor; The memory is used to store computer-executable instructions, and the processor is used to execute the computer-executable instructions. When the computer-executable instructions are executed by the processor, they implement the steps of the dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging.
[0014] Fourthly, the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging.
[0015] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention include: by reusing the transmit delay register to cache the delay information of the next focal position, there is no need to use an additional register to store the position delay information of the next focal position, which greatly saves chip area resources; the transmit delay register and receive delay register corresponding to each array element are directly and independently connected, and the data transmission between the transmit delay register and the receive delay register can be completed within one clock cycle, shortening the time required for focal position switching; the delay register is configured serially (regardless of transmit or receive), which greatly saves wiring resources; the transducer array is divided into several subarrays, and the delay registers corresponding to the array elements within the subarray are configured serially, but the subarrays are still configured simultaneously in parallel, which can greatly shorten the time for configuring the delay register and further reduce the time required for focal position switching. Attached Figure Description
[0016] The disclosure of this invention is illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the drawings are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of this invention. In the drawings, the same reference numerals are used to refer to the same parts. Wherein: Figure 1 The diagram schematically illustrates a process for implementing dynamic focus under reception according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0017] Figure 2The diagram illustrates a time delay data configuration scheme structure proposed according to an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation
[0018] It is readily understood that, based on the technical solution of this invention, those skilled in the art can propose various interchangeable structural methods and implementations without altering the essential spirit of the invention. Therefore, the following detailed embodiments and accompanying drawings are merely illustrative examples of the technical solution of this invention and should not be considered as the entirety of the invention or as limitations or restrictions on the technical solution of this invention.
[0019] Example 1, referring to Figures 1-2 As an embodiment of the present invention, a dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging is provided, comprising: Delay calculation unit, delay data distribution network, and array control unit.
[0020] The delay calculation unit is usually implemented by a digital signal processor (DSP) or a dedicated hardware computing core. Based on the preset scanning sequence and dynamic focusing algorithm, the unit calculates in real time or in advance the delay data required for each element in the ultrasonic transducer array to correspond to different receiving focal points (such as the Nth focal point, the N+1th focal point, etc.).
[0021] The array control unit is the core component of the ASIC, integrating multiple control channels equal to the number of array elements in the ultrasonic transducer array. Each control channel independently serves one array element.
[0022] Delay data distribution network: Connected between the delay calculation unit and the array control unit, it is responsible for efficiently configuring the calculated delay data into each control channel. This network can adopt various topologies, such as a global bus, a hierarchical network, or a subarray-based parallel-serial shift network as described in the preferred embodiment.
[0023] Each control channel specifically includes the following key components: The receive delay register is a working register that is directly used to control the receive beamforming of the array element corresponding to the channel. During the current receiving period (corresponding to the Nth focus), the value of the register is used to perform digital or analog delay compensation on the received ultrasonic echo signal.
[0024] The transmit delay register is used to store the delay data of the transmit focus during the transmit phase, and is reused as a buffer register for the delay data of the next receive focus during the receive phase.
[0025] The direct connection path is a dedicated hardware path that connects the output of the transmit delay register directly to the input of the receive delay register. This path allows data to be loaded in parallel from the transmit delay register to the receive delay register within one clock cycle, enabling "instantaneous" switching of focus delay data.
[0026] During the time period corresponding to the Nth receiving focus, the control channels of all array elements use the Nth focus delay data stored in their respective receiving delay registers to delay the received signal. At the same time, the back-end beamformer synthesizes the delay-compensated signals of each channel. At a certain moment before the receiving time period of the Nth focus ends, the system starts preloading the delay data of the next focus (N+1th focus). The delay calculation unit writes the calculated delay data of each array element of the N+1th focus into the transmit delay register of each array element through the delay data distribution network.
[0027] This preloading process uses a serial shifting method. The entire ultrasonic transducer array is logically divided into M subarrays (for example, each subarray consists of 8 or 16 channels). The delay data distribution network contains M parallel serial data chains. For each subarray, the delay data is shifted sequentially into a shared shift register chain according to the array element order, and is finally latched into the corresponding array element's transmit delay register. This parallel-serial architecture effectively reduces the number of I / O ports used for data distribution, thereby reducing chip area and wiring complexity.
[0028] After the reception period of the Nth focus has completely ended and before the reception period of the N+1th focus begins, there is a very short focus switching gap. During this gap, the system generates a global control signal (such as a clock pulse). On the effective edge of this signal, all control channels load the delay data of the N+1th focus stored in the transmit delay register into the receive delay register simultaneously and in parallel through their direct connection paths. This operation is completed within one clock cycle, realizing a seamless and high-speed switching of the receive focus delay data. After entering the reception period corresponding to the N+1th focus, all array elements immediately use the new delay data in the updated receive delay register to receive the signal, thereby achieving dynamic focusing. The above steps are repeated until the synthesis of the entire receive beam is completed.
[0029] Taking a 4D-ICE probe with 256 array elements as an example, in the traditional method, when switching the receiving focus, 256 new time-delay data need to be written into the receiving time delay register one by one through the bus, which takes hundreds of clock cycles. During this period, the receiving channel must be paused, resulting in a shortened effective receiving time and limiting the frame rate and image quality.
[0030] By employing the method of this invention, while receiving the echo of the Nth focus, the system has pre-configured the 256 time-delay data of the N+1th focus into the transmit time-delay register through serial shifting. When the focus needs to be switched, the time-delay data of all 256 channels can be updated in just one clock cycle. This greatly shortens the focus switching time, enabling the system to set denser receiving focuses and improve the quality of beamforming (such as higher lateral resolution). At the same time, due to the significant increase in the proportion of effective receiving time, the system can support higher imaging frame rates, which is crucial for real-time 4D cardiac imaging.
[0031] Example 2 illustrates a schematic scheme for a dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging. It should be noted that the technical solution of this dynamic focusing system for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging belongs to the same concept as the technical solution of the dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging described above. Details not described in detail in the technical solution of the dynamic focusing system for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging in this embodiment can be found in the description of the technical solution of the dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging described above.
[0032] This embodiment also provides a dynamic focusing system for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging, used to implement the aforementioned dynamic receiving method, including: The delay calculation unit is used to calculate the delay data corresponding to different receiving focal points; The array control unit contains control channels that correspond one-to-one with multiple array elements of the ultrasonic transducer array; Each of the control channels includes: A receive delay register is used to store the delay data required for the current receive focus; One transmit delay register is multiplexed as a buffer register for the next receive focus delay data; A direct connection path connects the output of the transmit delay register to the input of the receive delay register, used to load the delay data of the next receive focus into the receive delay register within one clock cycle during the focus switching interval; A delay data distribution network, connected to the array control unit, is used to distribute the delay data generated by the delay calculation unit to the transmit delay registers of each control channel.
[0033] This embodiment also provides an electronic device, including: Memory and processor; The memory is used to store computer-executable instructions, and the processor is used to execute the computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor, implement the steps of a dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging.
[0034] This embodiment also provides a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of a dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging.
[0035] The storage medium proposed in this embodiment and the dynamic focusing method for realizing real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging proposed in the above embodiments belong to the same inventive concept. Technical details not described in detail in this embodiment can be found in the above embodiments, and this embodiment has the same beneficial effects as the above embodiments.
[0036] Based on the above description of the implementation methods, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the present invention can be implemented using software and necessary general-purpose hardware, and of course, it can also be implemented using hardware. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, or the part that contributes to the prior art, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, such as a computer floppy disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flash memory, hard disk, or optical disk, etc., including several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods of the various embodiments of the present invention.
[0037] The technical scope of this invention is not limited to the content described above. Those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to the above embodiments without departing from the technical concept of this invention, and all such modifications and variations should fall within the protection scope of this invention.
Claims
1. A dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging, characterized by, A method for controlling a plurality of elements of an ultrasound transducer array to perform dynamic focusing, comprising: setting a receive time delay register and a transmit time delay register for each element; during a receive period corresponding to an Nth focal point, using Nth focal point time delay data stored in the receive time delay register of each element to time delay a receive signal; prior to a receive period corresponding to an (N+1)th focal point, pre-loading (N+1)th focal point time delay data into the transmit time delay register of each element; after the receive period corresponding to the Nth focal point and before the receive period corresponding to the (N+1)th focal point, transferring the (N+1)th focal point time delay data stored in the transmit time delay register of each element to the receive time delay register of each element in parallel; during the receive period corresponding to the (N+1)th focal point, using the updated time delay data in the receive time delay register to time delay the receive signal.
2. A method for dynamic focusing of real-time three-dimensional intracardiac echocardiographic imaging according to claim 1, wherein, The pre-loading of the (N+1)th focal point time delay data into the transmit time delay register is performed by serial shifting of the time delay data into the transmit time delay register of each element.
3. A method of dynamic focusing for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac echocardiography according to claim 2, wherein, The serial shifting is performed by dividing the ultrasound transducer array into a plurality of sub-arrays, and performing the serial shifting of the time delay data into the transmit time delay register of each element in parallel for each of the plurality of sub-arrays, wherein the time delay data is shifted into the transmit time delay register of each element in each sub-array by a shift register chain.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein, The transferring of the (N+1)th focal point time delay data from the transmit time delay register to the receive time delay register is performed in one clock cycle.
5. A method of dynamic focusing for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac echocardiography according to claim 3, wherein, Each sub-array contains at least 9 elements, and each element contains at least 16 sub-arrays, so that the serial shifting time is reduced to at least 9 clock cycles.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein, The receive time delay register and the transmit time delay register are connected by a direct connection path to reduce the data transfer path and support the focal point switching in one clock cycle.
7. A dynamic focusing system for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging for implementing the dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that comprising: a time delay calculation unit configured to calculate time delay data corresponding to different receive focal points; an array control unit comprising a plurality of control channels corresponding to a plurality of elements of an ultrasound transducer array; wherein each of the control channels comprises: a receive time delay register configured to store time delay data required for a current receive focal point; a transmit time delay register configured to be multiplexed as a buffer register for time delay data of a next receive focal point; a direct connection path connecting an output of the transmit time delay register and an input of the receive time delay register, and configured to load the time delay data of the next receive focal point into the receive time delay register in one clock cycle during a focal point switching gap; a time delay data distribution network connected to the array control unit and configured to distribute the time delay data generated by the time delay calculation unit to the transmit time delay register of each control channel.
8. A dynamic focusing system for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac echocardiography imaging according to claim 7, wherein, The time delay data distribution network comprises a plurality of shift register chains, each of which corresponds to a sub-array and is configured to serially shift the time delay data into the transmit time delay register of each element in the sub-array, and the plurality of sub-arrays are configured in parallel.
9. An electronic device, comprising: a memory and a processor; The memory is configured to store computer-executable instructions, and the processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor, implement the steps of the dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging according to any one of claims 1 to 6.
10. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the dynamic focusing method for real-time three-dimensional intracardiac ultrasound imaging according to any one of claims 1 to 6.