Ultrasound Beamforming Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 12 records and the 2021-2024 span shows an 80% drop, though 2025-26 figures are still filling in due to publication lag.
- The field is not consolidated the top 5 assignees hold 40.3% of all 62 records and the top 10 hold 64.5%, leaving a long tail of single- and double-filing entrants.
- G01S (radar, sonar & positioning) touches 77.4% of records while A61B (diagnosis & surgery) sits at 50.0%, showing most filings straddle signal-processing and clinical-device claims at once.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (1) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 62 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This review tracks 62 published patent records filed against ultrasound beamforming and plane wave imaging, spanning coherent compounding, adaptive beamforming, clutter suppression, channel data processing and deep learning reconstruction claims. Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, capturing both classical delay-and-sum beamforming lineages and the newer wave of learning-based reconstruction filings. The scope is technical rather than corporate: it follows claim language, not any single company’s portfolio.
Records are drawn from receiving offices led by the United States, followed by WIPO PCT filings, China and the European Patent Office, with a smaller presence in Canada and India. That spread points to a field still being filed multi-jurisdictionally rather than settling into one dominant venue.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 62-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year on year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend: a 2017 peak, then a real pullback
Annual filings rose to a peak of 12 records in 2017. By the last year that can be treated as complete, 2024, filings had fallen to 1, an 80% drop from the 5 filed in 2021. 2025 and 2026 figures will keep rising as publications catch up with filing dates roughly 18 months behind, so this should not yet be read as the field going quiet.
Technology composition: signal processing dominates, AI reconstruction is a minority
G01S (radar, sonar & positioning) appears in 77.4% of the 62 records and A61B (diagnosis & surgery) in 50.0%, confirming that most claims combine a signal-processing method with a clinical imaging device. G06N (AI-based computing) reaches only 14.5%, and G06T (image data processing) 6.5%, showing that deep-learning reconstruction claims, while present, are still a minority strand rather than the field's centre of gravity.
Shares are the percentage of the 62 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Ultrasound Beamforming and Image Reconstruction with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ultrasound beamforming and image reconstruction and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this space
Doppler measurement system and method (WO2017143456A1)
The filing describes a Doppler measurement system built around a random generator that drives an ultrasonic array transducer to emit transmit pulses at either an adjustable steering angle for plane wave imaging or a non-sequential transducer element order for synthetic aperture imaging, with each pulse independently randomised and its echo captured for reconstruction.Filed by The University of Western Ontario, published 2017-08-31.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6282963B1 | Numerical optimization of ultrasound beam path | 77 |
| 2 | US20140243676A1 | Delta delay approach for ultrasound beamforming on an asic | 61 |
| 3 | US20190133556A1 | Ultrasound beamforming system and method with reconfigurable aperture | 26 |
| 4 | US9439625B2 | Delta delay approach for ultrasound beamforming on an ASIC | 25 |
| 5 | US20150049578A1 | Systems and methods for ultrasound retrospective transmit focus beamforming | 24 |
| 6 | CN104777484A | 压缩自适应波束合成的平面波超声成像和微泡成像的方法与系统 | 23 |
| 7 | US20190046161A1 | Doppler measurement system and method | 18 |
| 8 | US20200041644A1 | Systems and methods for ultrasound beamforming using coherently compounded fresnel focusing | 15 |
| 9 | US20170146643A1 | Analog ultrasound beamformer | 15 |
| 10 | US20230086332A1 | High-Sensitivity and Real-Time Ultrasound Blood Flow Imaging Based on Adaptive and Localized Spatiotemporal C… | 11 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Read together, the trend line, the concentration figures and the IPC spread point to a field with occupied claim space at its core and open ground at its edges.
The pullback is real but the picture is incomplete
Filings dropped from 5 in 2021 to 1 in 2024, an 80% fall over that span. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 counts are still being filled in and should not be read as confirmation that interest has stopped.
Leadership exists, but it is not a lock
The top 5 assignees account for 40.3% of all 62 records and the top 10 for 64.5%. That leaves more than a third of filings spread across a long tail of academic and single-filing entrants, which is unusual concentration for a decade-old imaging technique.
Most claims sit at the signal-processing/device boundary
G01S (radar, sonar & positioning) covers 77.4% of the 62 records and A61B (diagnosis & surgery) covers 50.0%. Since a record can carry both classes, the overlap suggests the dominant claim shape pairs a beamforming or reconstruction method with a clinical ultrasound device rather than filing either alone.
Learning-based reconstruction is present but not dominant
G06N (AI-based computing) appears in 14.5% of records and G06T (image data processing) in 6.5%. Deep-learning reconstruction is a documented strand of this landscape, but it has not displaced classical delay-and-sum and coherent-compounding claims as the field's core.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to ultrasound beamforming and image reconstruction, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the activity has cooled
The ranked leaders span academic institutions and large medical-device manufacturers, but recent-year momentum has flattened across the board rather than concentrating around one winner.
A single leader, then a sharp drop
The leading assignee holds 6 records, with fifth place already down to 4 and tenth place to 2. The gap between first and fifth is small in absolute terms, which is consistent with a field where no single company has pulled decisively ahead.
Even the top filers have gone quiet recently
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including Philips, shows 0 filings in the latest year, with Philips down -100% year over year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as a reporting gap as much as a genuine stop.
The US leads, but filing is genuinely multi-jurisdictional
The United States receives 27 of the 62 records, with WIPO PCT filings at 10, China and the EPO each at 9, and smaller counts in Canada and India. That spread means clearance searches need to cover PCT and Chinese filings, not just US grants.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Dalhousie University | 0 | — |
| GE Precision Healthcare LLC | 0 | — |
| University of Leeds | 0 | — |
| Ursus Medical | 0 | — |
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. | 0 | -100% |
| Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research | 0 | — |
| Industrial Technology Research Institute | 0 | — |
| The University of Western Ontario | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific follow-up questions rather than a single conclusion. These are the ones worth running down before committing R&D or freedom-to-operate budget.
Check freedom-to-operate against the most-cited records
The highest-cited filings in this set, several tied to delta-delay ASIC beamforming approaches, sit at the centre of the field's prior art and are worth clearing before committing to a similar architecture.
Explore prior art in EurekaTrack whether the 2021-2024 pullback reverses
With 2025-26 filings still filling in due to publication lag, a follow-up check in a year will show whether the -80% trend from 2021 to 2024 was a genuine slowdown or a reporting gap.
Monitor filing trends in EurekaWatch the under-claimed branches for first movers
G01F, G01N and B06B all show low density relative to the G01S/A61B core. A new entrant filing cleanly in one of these adjacent classes could establish a position before the space fills in.
Map white space in EurekaCommon questions on ultrasound beamforming patents
Across the 27 assignees in this ranking, the leader holds 6 of the 62 records in scope, with fifth place at 4 and tenth place at 2. The field is not tightly held: the top 5 assignees combined account for 40.3% of all records and the top 10 for 64.5%, leaving over a third of filings spread across a long tail of universities and smaller filers. This makes the space more open to new entrants than a single-leader field would suggest.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 12 records and had fallen to 1 by 2024, an 80% drop from the 5 filed in 2021. However, patent publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 counts in any dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as proof the technology has cooled. A fair read is that the field is past its first filing wave, with the current wave not yet fully visible in the data.
The dominant class is G01S, radar/sonar & positioning, which touches 77.4% of the 62 records in scope, followed by A61B, diagnosis & surgery, at 50.0%. Because most beamforming filings pair a signal-processing method with a clinical device, a record commonly carries both codes. Smaller but present classes include G06N (AI-based computing, 14.5%), G10K (acoustics, 11.3%) and G06T (image data processing, 6.5%), marking the newer deep-learning reconstruction strand.
The most under-claimed branches relative to the G01S/A61B core are flow and volume measurement integration (G01F, 4.8% of records), material analysis applications (G01N, 4.8%) and mechanical vibration generation for transducers (B06B, 3.2%). AI-driven channel data reconstruction also remains a minority strand at 14.5% for G06N overall. A first claim in any of these areas would be filing against comparatively thin prior art rather than the dense G01S/A61B centre.
Yes, but as a minority strand rather than the field's centre. G06N, AI-based computing, appears in 14.5% of the 62 records in scope, and G06T, image data processing, in 6.5%. Classical delay-and-sum, coherent compounding and adaptive beamforming methods, captured mainly under G01S, still make up the bulk of filings, so learning-based reconstruction claims are additive to that base rather than replacing it.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.