An Efficient Focusing Method for High Resolution Ultrasound Imaging

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper proposes an efficient array beamforming method using spatial matched filtering for ultrasound imaging. In the proposed method, ultrasound waves are transmitted from an array subaperture with fixed transmit focus as in conventional array imaging. At receive, radio frequency (RF) echo signals from each receive channel are passed through a spatial matched filter that is constructed based on the system transmit-receive spatial impulse response. The filtered echo signals are then summed. The filter remaps and spatially registers the acoustic energy from each element so that the pulse-echo impulse response of the summed output is focused with acceptably low side lobes. Analytical beam pattern analysis and simulation results using a linear array show that the proposed spatial filtering method can provide more improved spatial resolution and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) compared with conventional dynamic receive focusing (DRF) method by implementing two-way dynamically focused beam pattern throughout the field.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 "Synthetic aperture imaging for small scale systems" 42 (42): 1995

2 "Spatial filter for focusing ultrasound images" 2001

3 "Spatial coding with curved wave-fronts" 1258-1261, 2004

4 "Real-time phased array imaging using digital beam forming and autonomous channel control" 1499-1502, 1990

5 "Principals of aperture and array system design" J Wiley 1976

6 "Medical Imaging Systems" Prentice Hall 73-224, 1983

7 "Introduction to Fourier Optics" McGraw-Hill 1996

8 "Field: A program for simulating ultrasound systems" 4 (4): 351-353, 1996

9 "Beamforming using spatio- temporal filtering" 2005

10 "An Efficient Motion Estimation and Compensation Method for Ultrasound Synthetic Aperture Imaging" 23 (23): 2002

11 "A new digital array system for dynamic focusing and steering with reduced sampling rate" 12 : 1-16, 1990