Coherent beam formation

Claim 3

The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises the step of setting ϑ to include all of the beams in a selected imaging set.

Claim 4

The method of claim 2, further including the step of repeating steps (a)-(f) for every repetition of any imaging sequence.

Claim 5

The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises the step of including every m-th one, where m is greater than 1, of the N beams in the selected imaging set; and further including the step of interpolating between the time corrections for the nearest adjacent beams in the set of beams for which an iterative probe beam set was obtained, to obtain time delay corrections for imaging beams not included in the set of probe beams.

Claim 6

The method of claim 4, further including the step of repeating steps (a)-(f) for every repetition of any imaging sequence.

Claim 7

The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) includes the steps of: converting the received signal from each k-th transducer into a digital baseband data signal; and cross-correlating, for the first (N-1) channels, the pair of k-th and (k+1)-st data signals to provide the phase conjugation error signal Δφ k from the k-th channel.

Claim 8

The method of claim 6, wherein each of the baseband data signals is a quadrature data signal having an in-phase component I k and a quadrature-phase component Q k , in a like-numbered k-th channel; and the cross-correlating step includes the step of complexly multiplying the pair of quadrature data signals.

Claim 9

The method of claim 7, wherein step (b) further includes the steps of: deriving, for each of the first (N-1) channels of the array, the Δφ k data term from a trigonometric ratio of a real portion and an imaginary portion of each complexly multiplied pair of adjacent channel signals; and summing the first to the j-th ones of the Δφ k terms to provide the phase conjugation correction signal φ jϑ for the j-th transducer of the probe beam.

Claim 10

The method of claim 6, wherein for each transducer 1 through (N-1), step (b) further includes the steps of: receiving an in-phase component I k+1 and a quad­rature-phase component Q k+1 from the (k+1)-st next channel; inverting the sign of the Q k+1 component; for each k-th channel, complexly multiplying the pair of I k and Q k data and the pair of I k+1 and Q k+1 data; separately accumulating the real and imaginary terms of the complex product; and providing the Δφ k term, for that k-th channel, as the arctangent of the ratio of the imaginary and real sums.

Claim 11

The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) includes the steps of: summing the first to the j-th ones of the phase conjugation signals Δφ k to produce a phase correc­tion data signal φ jϑ ; and dividing the phase correction data signal by the average frequency ω o of the beam energy to provide the time delay Δt jϑ .

Claim 12

The method of claim 1, wherein step (e) comprises the step of selecting the number L of iterations to be between 1 and 6.

Claim 13

Apparatus for iteratively adaptive reduction of phase aberration effects upon the time delays needed for focusing of a beam of coherent energy within non-homogeneous media at a selected range R from, and at an angle ϑ with respect to the normal to, the surface of an array of a plurality N of transducers, each for providing a portion of the energy of the beam when excited and for converting energy reflected thereto to a signal therefrom, comprising: means for causing a probe beam from each different and sequential one of a selected set of probe beams to reflect from scatterers naturally contained in at least a portion of the media to be investigated and be received by substantially all transducers of the array; phase conjugation processing means for cross-­correlating, for each probe beam, the received signals from each k-th one, where l≦k≦N, of the (N-1) successive pairs of adjacent transducers to produce a like number of phase conjugation correction signals Δφ k ; means for arithmetically operating upon the plurality of phase conjugation signals Δφ k to produce a time correction Δt jϑ for the time delay associated with that one transducer for that range R and angle ϑ; means associated with each transducer for then modifying by the time correction for that transducer both (1) the time delays for exciting a reduced-aberration imaging beam in the inhomogeneous medium and (2) the time delays for forming a reception beam from the media, with both beams steered substantially to angle ϑ and focused substantially to range R; means for causing at least one additional it­eration of probe beam irradiation, reflection reception and processing to further modify the time corrections of at least one transducer; and means associated with each transducer for then modifying by the final time correction, obtained after a selected number L of iterations, for that transducer the time delay of both irradiation of, and return signals received from, the media to be investigated, to reduce phase aberration in the data gathered for generating a displayable image of the media.

Claim 14

Apparatus for iteratively adaptive reduction of phase aberration effects upon the time delays needed for focusing of a beam of coherent energy within non-homogeneous media at a selected range R from, and at an angle ϑ with respect to the normal to, the surface of an array of a plurality N of transducers, each for providing a portion of the energy of the beam when excited and for converting energy reflected thereto to a signal therefrom, comprising: means for causing a probe beam from each different and sequential one of a selected set of probe beams to reflect from scatterers naturally contained in at least a portion of the media to be investigated and be received by substantially all transducers of the array; phase conjugation processing means for cross-­correlating, for each probe beam, the received signals from each k-th one, where l≦k≦N, of the (N-1) successive pairs of adjacent transducers to produce a like number of phase conjugation correction signals Δφ k ; means for arithmetically operating upon the plurality of phase conjugation signals Δφ k to produce a time correction Δt jϑ for the time delay associated with that one transducer for that range R and angle ϑ; means associated with each transducer for then modifying by the time correction for that transducer both (1) the time delays for exciting a reduced-aberration imaging beam in the inhomogeneous medium and (2) the time delays for forming a reception beam from the media, with both beams steered substantially to angle ϑ and focused substantially to range R; means for causing at least one additional it­eration of probe beam irradiation, reflection reception and processing to further modify the time corrections of at least one transducer; and means associated with each transducer for then modifying by the final time correction, obtained after a selected number L of iterations, for that transducer the time delay of both irradiation of, and return signals received from, the media to be investigated, to reduce phase aberration in the data gathered for generating a displayable image of the media.

Claim 15

The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the causing means includes means for converting the received signal from each k-th transducer into a digital baseband data signal; and each processing means, for the first (N-1) channels, cross-correlates the pair of k-th and (k+1)-st data signals to provide the phase conjugation error signal Δφ k from the k-th channel.

Claim 16

The apparatus of claim 13, wherein each of the baseband data signals is a quadrature data signal; and the k-th channel processing means includes means for com­plexly multiplying the pair of quadrature data signals from the k-th channel and the (k+1)-st channel.

Claim 17

The apparatus of claim 14, wherein each k-th channel baseband quadrature data signal has an in-phase component I k and a quadrature-phase component Q k ; and the k-th channel processing means receives the I k and Q k compo­nents from the k-th channel and the I k+1 and Q k+1 components from the (k+1)-st channel.

Claim 18

The apparatus of claim 15, wherein each complexly multiplying means provides separate output of the real portion and the imaginary portion of the product of (I k +iQ k ) and (I k+1 -iQ k+1 ).

Claim 19

The apparatus of claim 16, wherein each processing means further includes: means for separately accumulating the real portion output and the imaginary portion output of the complexly multiplying means; and means for taking a trigonometric ratio of the accumulated real and imaginary portion signals to provide the phase conjugation error data signal Δφ k for the k-th channel.

Claim 20

The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the arithmetically operation means includes means for summing the first to the j-th ones of the Δφ k data signals to provide the phase conjugation correction signal φ jϑ for the j-th transducer last providing a probe beam at angle ϑ.

Claim 21

The apparatus of claim 15, wherein each processing means further includes means for inverting the sign of the Q k+1 component.

Claim 22

The apparatus of claim 19, wherein each processing means further includes means for storing the received I k , Q k , I k+1 and inverted-sign Q k+1 components.