BFLY OPERATIONS, INC.

Aspects of the technology described herein related to modifying the location of an ultrasound imaging plane. Some embodiments include modifying the location of the ultrasound imaging plane based on a user selection. For example, some embodiments include receiving the user selection through a graphical user interface (GUI) that includes an ultrasound imaging plane indicator, where the ultrasound imaging plane indicator indicates the location of the ultrasound imaging plane. As another example, some embodiments include receiving the user selection by detecting tilts, taps, or voice commands. Some embodiments include automatically modifying the location of the ultrasound imaging plane. Some embodiments include modifying the location of the ultrasound imaging plane during biplane imaging.

An ultrasound probe includes an ultrasound transducer stack comprising one or more ultrasound transducers emitting an acoustic signal, and an acoustic window passing the acoustic signal. The acoustic window is composed of a butadiene-based compound. In one or more embodiments, the acoustic window is made of butadiene rubber. Butadiene rubber has acoustic characteristics that may be suitable for acoustic windows, as subsequently discussed. Specifically, the use of butadiene rubber may result in desirable acoustic attenuation, acoustic velocity and acoustic impedance.

An ultrasonic transducer device includes a bottom electrode layer of a transducer cavity disposed over a substrate, and a plurality of vias that electrically connect the bottom electrode layer with the substrate. A bottom cavity layer is disposed over the bottom electrode layer, and one or more openings are formed in the bottom cavity layer so as to expose a region of the bottom electrode layer, wherein locations of the one or more openings are segments that are disposed proximate an outer perimeter of the transducer cavity and substantially correspond to locations where the plurality of vias are not disposed directly beneath.

To implement a single-chip ultrasonic imaging solution, on-chip signal processing may be employed in the receive signal path to reduce data bandwidth and an output data module may be used to move data for all received channels off-chip as a digital data stream. The digitization of received signals on-chip allows advanced digital signal processing to be performed on-chip, and thus permits the full integration of an entire ultrasonic imaging system on a single semiconductor substrate. The on-chip digitization of received signals also enables the on-chip integration of ultrasound processing and/or pre-processing to reduce the burden on off-chip computing. Data compression architectures are disclosed to facilitate the transfer of data off-chip as a digital data stream in accordance with the bandwidth requirements of standard commercially-available output interfaces.

Aspects of the technology described herein relate to apparatuses and methods for performing elevational beamforming of ultrasound data. Elevational beamforming may be implemented by different types of control circuitry. Certain control circuitry may be configured to control memory such that ultrasound data from different elevational channels is summed with stored ultrasound data in the memory that was collected at different times. Certain control circuitry may be configured to control a decimator to decimate ultrasound data from different elevational channels with different phases. Certain control circuitry may be configured to control direct digital synthesis circuitry to add a different phase offset to complex signals generated by the DDS circuitry for multiplying with ultrasound data from different elevational channels.

An ultrasonic transducer device includes a bottom electrode layer of a transducer cavity disposed over a substrate, and a plurality of vias that electrically connect the bottom electrode layer with the substrate. A bottom cavity layer is disposed over the bottom electrode layer, and one or more openings are formed in the bottom cavity layer so as to expose a region of the bottom electrode layer, wherein locations of the one or more openings are segments that are disposed proximate an outer perimeter of the transducer cavity and substantially correspond to locations where the plurality of vias are not disposed directly beneath.

Aspects of the technology described herein include a processing device configured to display, on a touch-sensitive display screen of a processing device in operative communication with an ultrasound device, an ultrasound image, a movable measurement tool, and an icon that maintains a fixed distance from a portion of the measurement tool. The icon may be configured to modify the measurement tool, and the icon may not overlap the measurement tool.

Aspects of the technology described herein relate to apparatuses and methods for performing elevational beamforming of ultrasound data. Elevational beamforming may be implemented by different types of control circuitry. Certain control circuitry may be configured to control memory such that ultrasound data from different elevational channels is summed with stored ultrasound data in the memory that was collected at different times. Certain control circuitry may be configured to control a decimator to decimate ultrasound data from different elevational channels with different phases. Certain control circuitry may be configured to control direct digital synthesis circuitry to add a different phase offset to complex signals generated by the DDS circuitry for multiplying with ultrasound data from different elevational channels.

A system for coherence imaging may receive ultrasound signals each having a respective delay associated with a respective ultrasonic transducer element in an ultrasonic transducer array. The system may obtain an approximation of the auto-correlation of ultrasound signals without any auto-correlation calculation, and determine the output image based on the approximation. In approximating the auto-correlation, the system may group the ultrasound signals into multiple portions, each corresponding to a respective sub-aperture of a plurality of sub-apertures of the ultrasonic transducer array. The system may determine a coherent sum of signals for each sub-aperture, perform a square operation or magnitude square operation over the coherent sum to obtain resulting data, normalize the resulting data, and sum the resulting data for all of the sub-apertures to generate the output image. A sub-aperture in the plurality of sub-apertures may overlap with another sub-aperture.

An ultrasound system includes an ultrasound probe and a mobile device in operative communication with each other. The ultrasound probe includes three buttons—an up button, a center button, and a down button—disposed on the external housing. The mobile device may be configured to receive an indication from the ultrasound probe of a double press of the center button when the mobile device is displaying a scan screen. Based on the double press of the center button, the mobile device may be configured to display a button function configuration menu on the scan screen, receive a selection from the button function configuration menu of a button function configuration, receive an indication of a single press of the up button or the down button, and perform an action in accordance with the single press of the up button or the down button and the button function configuration.