PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a flexible ultrasonic array probe capable of achieving a highly accurate beam formation with a small number of signal lines and having flexibility in bending or shape deformation.SOLUTION: This ultrasonic imaging apparatus has: a probe including a plurality of elements for transmitting/receiving ultrasonic signals with a subject, and a connection section for relatively movably connecting the plurality of elements a computing section computing relative positional information of the plurality of elements based on the receiving signals of the plurality of elements and an image data generation section generating image data from the receiving signal and the relative positional information. This ultrasonic imaging apparatus optimizes a delay time between the receiving signals for minimizing the width of a receiving point response function so as to estimate the shape of a probe itself, transmit/receive based on the estimated shape and take a tomographic image.COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT【課題】少ない信号線の本数で高精度なビームフォーミングが実現可能な、屈曲、形状変形の自由度があるフレキシブル超音波アレイ探触子を実現する。【解決手段】被検体と超音波信号を送受信する複数の素子と、複数の素子を相対的に可動に連結する連結部とを備える探触子と、前記複数の素子の受信信号に基づいて、前記複数の素子の相対的位置情報を演算する演算部と、前記受信信号と前記相対的位置情報とから、画像データを生成する画像データ生成部とを有する。受信点応答関数の幅が最小となるように、受信信号間の遅延時間を最適化することにより、探触子自身の形状を推定し、推定された形状に基づいて送受信を行い、断層像撮像を行う。【選択図】図2
