Automatic Time Gain Compensation (TGC) in Ultrasound Imaging

An ultrasound imaging system (100) includes a transducer array (102) with a plurality of transducer elements (106) configured to transmit an ultrasound signal, receive echo signals produced in response to the ultrasound signal interacting with structure, and generate electrical signals indicative of the echo signals. The system further includes a beamformer (112) configured to process the electrical signals and generate radio frequency data, an in-phase quadrature processor (114) configured to process the radio frequency data and generate in-phase quadrature data, and a frame processor (116) configured to envelope detect and log compress the in-phase quadrature data, producing compressed envelope data. The system further includes a time gain compensation controller (120) configured to continuously process the in-phase quadrature data and the compressed envelope data and continuously and automatically apply time gain compensation data to an envelope data image. The system further includes a rendering engine (124) configured to display, via a display (124), the time gain compensated envelope data image.