PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display an ultrasonic image having a proper S/N ratio and adjusted to an optimum focus.SOLUTION: After delay correction is applied to element data obtained by A/D-converting an echo signal, the quality of the element data is determined on the basis of the element data without performance of phasing addition, and different processing operations are performed for the element data depending on the result of the determination. More specifically, an element data determination unit 164 compares an average value of element-direction amplitude values of the element data, which is calculated by an element-direction average value calculation unit 162, with a preset threshold and performs the determination. When the average value is higher than the threshold, an RF data calculation unit 166 performs processing for adopting the element data, in which an absolute value of the amplitude value is a maximum value, as RF data without performing the phasing addition. Meanwhile, when the average value is lower than or equal to the threshold, the RF data calculation unit 166 performs processing for adopting the average value of all the element-direction amplitude values of the element data as the RF data without performing the phasing addition.COPYRIGHT: (C)2014,JPO&INPIT【課題】S/Nが良くかつ最適なフォーカスに調整された超音波画像を表示する。【解決手段】エコー信号をA/D変換して得た素子データを遅延補正した後、整相加算せずにその素子データに基づいて素子データの質を判定し、その判定結果に応じて素子データに異なる処理を行う。即ち、素子データ判定部164が素子方向の平均値算出部162によって算出された素子データの素子方向の振幅値の平均値を予め設定された閾値と比較判定し、平均値が閾値よりも大きい場合には、RFデータ算出部166が整相加算せずに振幅値の絶対値が最大値である素子データをRFデータとして採用する処理を行う。一方、平均値が閾値よりも小さいまたは等しい場合には、RFデータ算出部166が整相加算せずに素子データの素子方向の全ての振幅値の平均値をRFデータとして採用する処理を行う。【選択図】図5
