| abstract |
An ultrasound imaging apparatus is provided that includes: a plurality of receiving elements (5) which receive an acoustic wave (7) that propagates from an object (Q), and which convert the acoustic wave (7) to a reception signal; an adaptive beamformer (8 - 13) that performs adaptive beamforming of adjusting reception directionality in accordance with the reception signal in use of the reception signal; a delay-and-sum beamformer (8, 9, 24) that performs delay-and-sum beamforming having preset directionality in use of the reception signal; an amplitude modulator (25) that uses one output signal of one of the adaptive beamformer (8 - 13) and the delay-and-sum beamformer (8, 9, 24), to perform amplitude modulation on an output signal of the other one of the beamformers; and a generator (15, 16) that, on the basis of a signal outputted by the amplitude modulator (25), generates image data on the interior of the object. |