Ultrafast 3D synthetic aperture imaging with Hadamard-encoded aperiodic interval codes and aperiodic sparse arrays with separate transmitters and receivers

3D synthetic aperture (SA) imaging of volumes can be obtained using sparse 2D ultrasound arrays. However, even with just 256 elements, the volumetric imaging rate can be relatively slow due to having to transmit on each element in succession. Hadamard Aperiodic Interval (HAPI) codes can be used to image the full SA dataset in one extended transmit to speed up the synthetic aperture imaging, but their long nature produces large deadzones if the same elements are used as both transmitters and receivers. In this simulation study, we use a 2D Costas sparse array with separate transmitters and receivers to remedy the deadzone problem, and use it with the HAPI-coded imaging scheme to obtain fully transmit-receive focused, wide field-of-view 3D volumes with high-resolution and high SNR at ultrafast volumetric imaging rates of more than 500 volumes per second, almost nine times faster than non-coded SA imaging with the same imaging parameters. We show similar PSF performance compared to non-coded SA, and a 26 dB improvement in SNR with order-256 HAPI codes. We also present cyst simulations showing similar contrast for the HAPI-coded SA method compared to non-coded SA in the context of no noise, and improved contrast in the context of noise.

Beamformer for a Lensed Row-Column Array in 3-D Ultrasound Imaging

Row-column (RC) arrays typically suffer from a limited field of view (FOV), with the imaging area confined to a rectangular region equal to the footprint of the probe. This limitation can be solved by using a diverging lens in front of the probe. Previous studies have introduced a thin lens model for beamforming lensed RC arrays, but this model inaccurately assumes the lens to be infinitely thin, leading to degraded resolution and contrast due to errors in the time of flight (TOF) calculations. This article presents a beamformer based on ray tracing for accurate TOF calculation. A Verasonics Vantage 256 scanner was equipped with a Vermon RC probe with elements, pitch, and a center frequency. A synthetic aperture ultrasound sequence with 96 virtual sources and 32 active elements for each emission with row elements was employed, and all column elements were used for acquiring data. This method was tested with a polystyrene (PS) lens with a spherical shape and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) in a bicylindrical shape. Based on pressure field measurements, these two lenses provide a 20° and 33° FOV, respectively. The thin lens model had a lateral resolution of around for the bicylindrical lens, whereas the new method achieves a resolution of around , representing a 4.6-fold improvement. The contrast is enhanced from 23.1 to 29.8 dB for the bicylindrical lens while preserving the FOV.

Design and Evaluation of a Weighted Periodic Sparse Array for Low-Complexity 1-D Phased Array Ultrasound Imaging Systems

A sparse array offers a significant reduction in the complexity of ultrasonic imaging systems by decreasing the number of active elements and associated electrical circuits needed to form a focused beam. Consequently, for 1-D arrays, it has been adopted in the development of miniaturized systems such as portable, handheld, or smartphone-based systems. Previously, we developed an analytic method that can design a pair of 1-D periodic sparse arrays (PSAs) satisfying three specific constraints, which are the array size, desired grating lobe level, and sparseness factor (SF). In this study, we further developed our method by incorporating aperture weighting functions, which take the form of tapered rectangular functions to introduce null points on the beam pattern. These null points effectively suppress grating lobes generated by a matching pair of arrays. The design process commences with determining transmit and receive PSA patterns, followed by deriving corresponding aperture weighting functions. First, aperture functions of a base and weighting arrays are convolved, which is then upsampled to the targeted array size. Finally, the upsampled aperture is convolved to an aperture function of a subarray, resulting in weighted PSAs (wPSAs). Pulsed wave (PW) simulation confirmed improved grating lobe suppression with wPSAs compared to PSAs. Phantom imaging experiments using a 1-D phased array validated the enhanced contrast due to suppressed grating lobes but at the cost of small degradation in lateral resolution. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) also gradually declined with the greater SFs, but no significant difference in SNR was observed between wPSAs and PSAs. Finally, in vivo echocardiography imaging highlighted the clinical potential of wPSAs, particularly with high SFs. Overall, these results suggest that wPSAs can effectively enhance contrast compared to PSAs under the given SF or, alternatively, wPSA with greater SFs can achieve comparable image quality to PSAs with lower SFs. In conclusion, the wPSA approach holds promise for further reducing the complexity of ultrasound imaging systems.

Fourier-based beamforming for 3D plane wave imaging and application in vector flow imaging using selective compounding

Objective. Ultrafast ultrasound imaging using planar or diverging waves for transmission is a promising approach for efficient 3D imaging with matrix arrays. This technique has advantages for B-mode imaging and advanced techniques, such as 3D vector flow imaging (VFI). The computation load of the cross-beam technique is associated with the number of transmit anglesmand receive anglesn. The full velocity vector is obtained using the least square fashion. However, the beamforming is repeatedm × ntimes using a conventional time-domain delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformer. In the 3D case, the collection and processing of data from different beams increase the amount of data that must be processed, requiring more storage capacity and processing power. Furthermore, the large computation complexity of DAS is another major concern. These challenges translate into longer computational times, increased complexity in data processing, and difficulty in real-time applications.Approach. In response to this issue, this study proposes a novel Fourier domain beamformer for 3D plane wave imaging, which significantly increases the computational speed. Additionally, a selective compounding strategy is proposed for VFI, which reduces the beamforming process fromm × ntom(wheremandnrepresent the number of transmission and reception, respectively), effectively shortening the processing time. The underlying principle is to decompose the receive wavefront into a series of plane waves with different slant angles. Each slant angle can produce a sub-volume for coherent or selective compounding. This method does not rely on the assumption that the plane wave is perfect and the results show that our proposed beamformer is better than DAS in terms of resolution and image contrast. In the case of velocity estimation, for the Fourier-based method, only Tx angles are assigned in the beamformer and the selective compounding method produces the final image with a specialized Rx angle.Main results. Simulation studies andin vitroexperiments confirm the efficacy of this new method. The proposed beamformer shows improved resolution and contrast performance compared to the DAS beamformer for B-mode imaging, with a suppressed sidelobe level. Furthermore, the proposed technique outperforms the conventional DAS method, as evidenced by lower mean bias and standard deviation in velocity estimation for VFI. Notably, the computation time has been shortened by 40 times, thus promoting the real-time application of this technique. The efficacy of this new method is verified through simulation studies andin vitroexperiments and evaluated by mean bias and standard deviation. Thein vitroresults reveal a better velocity estimation: the mean bias is 2.3%, 3.4%, and 5.0% forvx,vy, andvz, respectively. The mean standard deviation is 1.8%, 1.7%, and 3.4%. With DAS, the evaluated mean bias is 9.8%, 4.6%, and 6.7% and the measured mean standard deviation is 7.5%, 2.5%, and 3.9%.Significance. In this work, we propose a novel Fourier-based method for both B-mode imaging and functional VFI. The new beamformer is shown to produce better image quality and improved velocity estimation. Moreover, the new VFI computation time is reduced by 40 times compared to conventional methods. This new method may pave a new way for real-time 3D VFI applications.

Increasing abdominal aortic aneurysm curvature visibility using 3D dual probe bistatic ultrasound imaging combined with probe translation

High frame rate ultrasound (US) imaging techniques in 3D are promising tools for capturing abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) over time, however, with the limited number of channel-to-element connections current footprints are small, which limits the field of view. Moreover, the maximal steering angle of the ultrasound beams in transmit and the maximal receptance angle in receive are insufficient for capturing the curvy shape of the AAA. Therefore, an approach is needed towards large arrays. In this study, high frame rate bistatic 3D US data (17 Hz) were acquired with two synchronized matrix arrays positioned at different locations (multi-aperture imaging) using a translation stage to simulate what a larger array with limited channel-to-element connections can potentially achieve. Acquisitions were performed along an AAA shaped phantom with different probe tilting angles (0 up to ± 30°). The performance of different multi-aperture configurations was quantified using the generalized contrast-to-noise ratio of the wall and lumen (gCNR). Furthermore, a parametric model of the multi-aperture system was used to estimate in which AAA wall regions the contrast is expected to be high. This was evaluated for AAAs with increasing diameters and curvature. With an eight-aperture 0° probe angle configuration a 69 % increase in field of view was measured in the longitudinal direction compared to the field of view of a single aperture configuration. When increasing the number of apertures from two to eight, the gCNR improved for the upper wall and lower wall by 35 % and 13 % (monostatic) and by 36 % and 13 % (bistatic). Contrast improvements up to 22 % (upper wall) and 12 % (lower wall) are achieved with tilted probe configurations compared to non-tilted configurations. Moreover, with bistatic imaging with tilted probe configurations gCNR improvements up to 4 % (upper wall) and 7 % (lower wall) are achieved compared to monostatic imaging. Furthermore, imaging with a larger inter-probe distance improved the gCNR for a ± 15° probe angle configuration. The gCNR has an expected pattern over time, where the contrast is lower when there is more wall motion (systole) and higher when motion is reduced (diastole). Furthermore, a higher frame rate (45 Hz) yields a lower gCNR, because fewer compound angles are used. The results of the parametric model suggest that a flat array is suitable for imaging AAA shapes with limited curvature, but that it is not suitable for imaging larger AAA shapes with more curvature. According to the model, tilted multi-aperture configurations combined with bistatic imaging can achieve a larger region with high contrast compared to non-tilted configurations. The findings of the model are in agreement with experimental findings. To conclude, this study demonstrates the vast improvements in field of view and AAA wall visibility that a large, sparsely populated 3D array can potentially achieve when imaging AAAs compared to single or dual aperture imaging. In the future, larger arrays, less thermal noise, more steering, and more channel-to-element connections combined with carefully chosen orientations of (sub-) apertures will likely advance 3D imaging of AAAs.

Split-based elevational localization of photoacoustic guidewire tip by 1D array probe using spatial impulse response

Objective. Photoacoustic emitters on the tip of a therapeutic device have been intensively studied for echo-guided intervention purposes. In this study, a novel method for localizing the guidewire tip emitter in the elevation direction using a 1D array probe is proposed to resolve the issue of the tip potentially deviating from the ultrasound-imaged plane.Approach. Our method uses the 'interference split' that appears when the emitter is off-plane. Here, a point source from the emitter splits into two points in images. Based on the split, 'split-based elevation localization (SEL)' is introduced to estimate the absolute elevation position of the emitter. Additionally, 'Signed SEL' incorporates an asymmetric feature into the 1D probe to obtain the sign of the elevation localization. An attenuative coupler is attached to the half side of the probe to control the interference split. In SEL and Signed SEL, we propose a modeled split matching (MSM) algorithm to localize the tip position. MSM performs pattern matching of a measured split waveform with modeled split waveforms corresponding to all emitter positions in a region of interest. The modeled waveforms are precalculated using the spatial impulse response. The proposed method is numerically and experimentally validated.Main results. Numerical simulations for time-domain wave propagation clearly demonstrated the interference split phenomena. In the experimental validation with a vessel-mimicking phantom, the proposed methods successfully estimated the elevation positions,yb.SEL exhibited a root-mean-squared error (RMSE) of 2.0 mm for the range of 0 mm ≤yb≤ 30 mm, while Signed SEL estimated the absolute position with an RMSE of 2.4 mm and the sign with an accuracy of 80.8% for the range of -30 mm ≤yb≤ 30 mm.Significance.These results suggest that the proposed method could provide approximate tip positions and help sonographers track it by fanning the probe.

Deep learning assisted sparse array ultrasound imaging

This study aims to restore grating lobe artifacts and improve the image resolution of sparse array ultrasonography via a deep learning predictive model. A deep learning assisted sparse array was developed using only 64 or 16 channels out of the 128 channels in which the pitch is two or eight times the original array. The deep learning assisted sparse array imaging system was demonstrated on ex vivo porcine teeth. 64- and 16-channel sparse array images were used as the input and corresponding 128-channel dense array images were used as the ground truth. The structural similarity index measure, mean squared error, and peak signal-to-noise ratio of predicted images improved significantly (p < 0.0001). The resolution of predicted images presented close values to ground truth images (0.18 mm and 0.15 mm versus 0.15 mm). The gingival thickness measurement showed a high level of agreement between the predicted sparse array images and the ground truth images, as indicated with a bias of -0.01 mm and 0.02 mm for the 64- and 16-channel predicted images, respectively, and a Pearson's r = 0.99 (p < 0.0001) for both. The gingival thickness bias measured by deep learning assisted sparse array imaging and clinical probing needle was found to be <0.05 mm. Additionally, the deep learning model showed capability of generalization. To conclude, the deep learning assisted sparse array can reconstruct high-resolution ultrasound image using only 16 channels of 128 channels. The deep learning model performed generalization capability for the 64-channel array, while the 16-channel array generalization would require further optimization.

Review of Ultrasonic Particle Manipulation Techniques: Applications and Research Advances

Ultrasonic particle manipulation technique is a non-contact label-free method for manipulating micro- and nano-scale particles using ultrasound, which has obvious advantages over traditional optical, magnetic, and electrical micro-manipulation techniques; it has gained extensive attention in micro-nano manipulation in recent years. This paper introduces the basic principles and manipulation methods of ultrasonic particle manipulation techniques, provides a detailed overview of the current mainstream acoustic field generation methods, and also highlights, in particular, the applicable scenarios for different numbers and arrangements of ultrasonic transducer devices. Ultrasonic transducer arrays have been used extensively in various particle manipulation applications, and many sound field reconstruction algorithms based on ultrasonic transducer arrays have been proposed one after another. In this paper, unlike most other previous reviews on ultrasonic particle manipulation, we analyze and summarize the current reconstruction algorithms for generating sound fields based on ultrasonic transducer arrays and compare these algorithms. Finally, we explore the applications of ultrasonic particle manipulation technology in engineering and biological fields and summarize and forecast the research progress of ultrasonic particle manipulation technology. We believe that this review will provide superior guidance for ultrasonic particle manipulation methods based on the study of micro and nano operations.

Costas Sparse 2-D Arrays for High-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging

Two-dimensional arrays enable volumetric ultrasound imaging but have been limited to small aperture size and hence low resolution due to the high cost and complexity of fabrication, addressing, and processing associated with large fully addressed arrays. Here, we propose Costas arrays as a gridded sparse 2-D array architecture for volumetric ultrasound imaging. Costas arrays have exactly one element for every row and column, such that the vector displacement between any pair of elements is unique. These properties ensure aperiodicity, which helps eliminate grating lobes. Compared with previously reported works, we studied the distribution of active elements based on an order-256 Costas layout on a wider aperture ( 96 λ×96 λ at 7.5 MHz center frequency) for high-resolution imaging. Our investigations with focused scanline imaging of point targets and cyst phantoms showed that Costas arrays exhibit lower peak sidelobe levels compared with random sparse arrays of the same size and offer comparable performance in terms of contrast compared with Fermat spiral arrays. In addition, Costas arrays are gridded, which could ease the manufacturing and has one element for each row/column, which enables simple interconnection strategies. Compared with state-of-the-art matrix probes, which are commonly 32×32 , the proposed sparse arrays achieve higher lateral resolution and a wider field of view.

Transcranial 3D ultrasound localization microscopy using a large element matrix array with a multi-lens diffracting layer: anin vitrostudy

Objective. Early diagnosis and acute knowledge of cerebral disease require to map the microflows of the whole brain. Recently, ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) was applied to map and quantify blood microflows in 2D in the brain of adult patients down to the micron scale. Whole brain 3D clinical ULM remains challenging due to the transcranial energy loss which reduces significantly the imaging sensitivity.Approach. Large aperture probes with a large surface can increase both the field of view and sensitivity. However, a large active surface implies thousands of acoustic elements, which limits clinical translation. In a previous simulation study, we developed a new probe concept combining a limited number of elements and a large aperture. It is based on large elements, to increase sensitivity, and a multi-lens diffracting layer to improve the focusing quality. In this study, a 16 elements prototype, driven at 1 MHz frequency, was made andin vitroexperiments were performed to validate the imaging capabilities of this new probe concept.Main results. First, pressure fields emitted from a large single transducer element without and with diverging lens were compared. Low directivity was measured for the large element with the diverging lens while maintaining high transmit pressure. The focusing quality of 4 × 3cm matrix arrays of 16 elements without/with lenses were compared.In vitroexperiments in a water tank and through a human skull were achieved to localize and track microbubbles in tubes.Significance.ULM was achieved demonstrating the strong potential of multi-lens diffracting layer to enable microcirculation assessment over a large field of view through the bones.

3-D Coherent Multitransducer Ultrasound Imaging With Sparse Spiral Arrays

Coherent multitransducer ultrasound (CoMTUS) creates an extended effective aperture through the coherent combination of multiple arrays, which results in images with enhanced resolution, extended field-of-view, and higher sensitivity. The subwavelength localization accuracy of the multiple transducers required to coherently beamform the data is achieved by using the echoes backscattered from targeted points. In this study, CoMTUS is implemented and demonstrated for the first time in 3-D imaging using a pair of 256-element 2-D sparse spiral arrays, which keep the channel count low and limit the amount of data to be processed. The imaging performance of the method was investigated using both simulations and phantom tests. The feasibility of free-hand operation is also experimentally demonstrated. Results show that, in comparison with a single dense array system using the same total number of active elements, the proposed CoMTUS system improves spatial resolution (up to ten times) in the direction where both arrays are aligned, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR; up to 46%), and generalized CNR (gCNR; up to 15%). Overall, CoMTUS shows a narrower main lobe and higher CNR, which results in an increased dynamic range and better target detectability.

3-D H-scan ultrasound imaging of relative scatterer size using a matrix array transducer and sparse random aperture compounding

H-scan ultrasound (US) is a high-resolution imaging technique for soft tissue characterization. By acquiring data in volume space, H-scan US can provide insight into subtle tissue changes or heterogenous patterns that might be missed using traditional cross-sectional US imaging approaches. In this study, we introduce a 3-dimensional (3-D) H-scan US imaging technology for voxel-level tissue characterization in simulation and experimentation. Using a matrix array transducer, H-scan US imaging was developed to evaluate the relative size of US scattering aggregates in volume space. Experimental data was acquired using a programmable US system (Vantage 256, Verasonics Inc, Kirkland, WA) equipped with a 1024-element (32 × 32) matrix array transducer (Vermon Inc, Tours, France). Imaging was performed using the full array in transmission. Radiofrequency (RF) data sequences were collected using a sparse random aperture compounding technique with 6 different data compounding approaches. Plane wave imaging at five angles was performed at a center frequency of 8 MHz. Scan conversion and attenuation correction were applied. To generate the 3-D H-scan US images, a convolution filter bank (N = 256) was then used to process the RF data sequences and measure the spectral content of the backscattered US signals before volume reconstruction. Preliminary experimental studies were conducted using homogeneous phantom materials embedded with spherical US scatterers of varying diameter, i.e., 27 to 45, 63 to 75, or 106-126 μm. Both simulated and experimental results revealed that 3-D H-scan US images have a low spatial variance when tested with homogeneous phantom materials. Furthermore, H-scan US is considerably more sensitive than traditional B-mode US imaging for differentiating US scatterers of varying size (p = 0.001 and p = 0.93, respectively). Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of 3-D H-scan US imaging using a matrix array transducer for tissue characterization in volume space.

Anatomic and Functional Imaging Using Row-Column Arrays

Row-column (RC) arrays have the potential to yield full 3-D ultrasound imaging with a greatly reduced number of elements compared to fully populated arrays. They, however, have several challenges due to their special geometry. This review article summarizes the current literature for RC imaging and demonstrates that full anatomic and functional imaging can attain a high quality using synthetic aperture (SA) sequences and modified delay-and-sum beamforming. Resolution can approach the diffraction limit with an isotropic resolution of half a wavelength with low sidelobe levels, and the field of view can be expanded by using convex or lensed RC probes. GPU beamforming allows for three orthogonal planes to be beamformed at 30 Hz, providing near real-time imaging ideal for positioning the probe and improving the operator's workflow. Functional imaging is also attainable using transverse oscillation and dedicated SA sequence for tensor velocity imaging for revealing the full 3-D velocity vector as a function of spatial position and time for both blood velocity and tissue motion estimation. Using RC arrays with commercial contrast agents can reveal super-resolution imaging (SRI) with isotropic resolution below [Formula: see text]. RC arrays can, thus, yield full 3-D imaging at high resolution, contrast, and volumetric rates for both anatomic and functional imaging with the same number of receive channels as current commercial 1-D arrays.

Minimizing Image Quality Loss After Channel Count Reduction for Plane Wave Ultrasound via Deep Learning Inference

High-frame-rate ultrasound imaging uses unfocused transmissions to insonify an entire imaging view for each transmit event, thereby enabling frame rates over 1000 frames per second (fps). At these high frame rates, it is naturally challenging to realize real-time transfer of channel-domain raw data from the transducer to the system back end. Our work seeks to halve the total data transfer rate by uniformly decimating the receive channel count by 50% and, in turn, doubling the array pitch. We show that despite the reduced channel count and the inevitable use of a sparse array aperture, the resulting beamformed image quality can be maintained by designing a custom convolutional encoder-decoder neural network to infer the radio frequency (RF) data of the nullified channels. This deep learning framework was trained with in vivo human carotid data (5-MHz plane wave imaging, 128 channels, 31 steering angles over a 30° span, and 62 799 frames in total). After training, the network was tested on an in vitro point target scenario that was dissimilar to the training data, in addition to in vivo carotid validation datasets. In the point target phantom image beamformed from inferred channel data, spatial aliasing artifacts attributed to array pitch doubling were found to be reduced by up to 10 dB. For carotid imaging, our proposed approach yielded a lumen-to-tissue contrast that was on average within 3 dB compared to the full-aperture image, whereas without channel data inferencing, the carotid lumen was obscured. When implemented on an RTX-2080 GPU, the inference time to apply the trained network was 4 ms, which favors real-time imaging. Overall, our technique shows that with the help of deep learning, channel data transfer rates can be effectively halved with limited impact on the resulting image quality.

Design, Implementation, and Medical Applications of 2-D Ultrasound Sparse Arrays

An ultrasound sparse array consists of a sparse distribution of elements over a 2-D aperture. Such an array is typically characterized by a limited number of elements, which in most cases is compatible with the channel number of the available scanners. Sparse arrays represent an attractive alternative to full 2-D arrays that may require the control of thousands of elements through expensive application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). However, their massive use is hindered by two main drawbacks: the possible beam profile deterioration, which may worsen the image contrast, and the limited signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which may result too low for some applications. This article reviews the work done for three decades on 2-D ultrasound sparse arrays for medical applications. First, random, optimized, and deterministic design methods are reviewed together with their main influencing factors. Then, experimental 2-D sparse array implementations based on piezoelectric and capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) technologies are presented. Sample applications to 3-D (Doppler) imaging, super-resolution imaging, photo-acoustic imaging, and therapy are reported. The final sections discuss the main shortcomings associated with the use of sparse arrays, the related countermeasures, and the next steps envisaged in the development of innovative arrays.

Unfocused Field Analysis of a Density-Tapered Spiral Array for High-Volume-Rate 3-D Ultrasound Imaging

Spiral array transducers with a sparse 2-D aperture have demonstrated their potential in realizing 3-D ultrasound imaging with reduced data rates. Nevertheless, their feasibility in high-volume-rate imaging based on unfocused transmissions has yet to be established. From a metrology standpoint, it is essential to characterize the acoustic field of unfocused transmissions from spiral arrays not only to assess their safety but also to identify the root cause of imaging irregularities due to the array's sparse aperture. Here, we present a field profile analysis of unfocused transmissions from a density-tapered spiral array transducer (256 hexagonal elements, 220- [Formula: see text] element diameter, and 1-cm aperture diameter) through both simulations and hydrophone measurements. We investigated plane- and diverging-wave transmissions (five-cycle, 7.5-MHz pulses) from 0° to 10° steering for their beam intensity characteristics and wavefront arrival time profiles. Unfocused firings were also tested for B-mode imaging performance (ten compounded angles, -5° to 5° span). The array was found to produce unfocused transmissions with a peak negative pressure of 93.9 kPa at 2 cm depth. All transmissions steered up to 5° were free of secondary lobes within 12 dB of the main beam peak intensity. All wavefront arrival time profiles were found to closely match the expected profiles with maximum root-mean-squared errors of [Formula: see text] for plane wave (PW) and [Formula: see text] for diverging wave. The B-mode images showed good spatial resolution with a penetration depth of 22 mm in PW imaging. Overall, these results demonstrate that the density-tapered spiral array can facilitate unfocused transmissions below regulatory limits (mechanical index: 0.034; spatial-peak, pulse-average intensity: 0.298 W/cm2) and with suppressed secondary lobes while maintaining smooth wavefronts.

Design of 2D Planar Sparse Binned Arrays Based on the Coarray Analysis

The analysis of the beampattern is the base of sparse arrays design process. However, in the case of bidimensional arrays, this analysis has a high computational cost, turning the design process into a long and complex task. If the imaging system development is considered a holistic process, the aperture is a sampling grid that must be considered in the spatial domain through the coarray structure. Here, we propose to guide the aperture design process using statistical parameters of the distribution of the weights in the coarray. We have studied three designs of sparse matrix binned arrays with different sparseness degrees. Our results prove that there is a relationship between these parameters and the beampattern, which is valuable and improves the array design process. The proposed methodology reduces the computational cost up to 58 times with respect to the conventional fitness function based on the beampattern analysis.

Design of Ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Imaging Systems Based on a Non-Grid 2D Sparse Array

This work provides a guide to design ultrasonic synthetic aperture systems for non-grid two-dimensional sparse arrays such as spirals or annular segmented arrays. It presents an algorithm that identifies which elements have a more significant impact on the beampattern characteristics and uses this information to reduce the number of signals, the number of emitters and the number of parallel receiver channels involved in the beamforming process. Consequently, we can optimise the 3D synthetic aperture ultrasonic imaging system for a specific sparse array, reducing the computational cost, the hardware requirements and the system complexity. Simulations using a Fermat spiral array and experimental data based on an annular segmented array with 64 elements are used to assess this algorithm.

Sparse Convolutional Beamforming for 3-D Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging

Real-time 3-D ultrasound (US) provides a complete visualization of inner body organs and blood vasculature, crucial for diagnosis and treatment of diverse diseases. However, 3-D systems require massive hardware due to the huge number of transducer elements and consequent data size. This increases cost significantly and limit both frame rate and image quality, thus preventing the 3-D US from being common practice in clinics worldwide. A recent study presented a technique called sparse convolutional beamforming algorithm (SCOBA), which obtains improved image quality while allowing notable element reduction in the context of 2-D focused imaging. In this article, we build upon previous work and introduce a nonlinear beamformer for 3-D imaging, called COBA-3D, consisting of 2-D spatial convolution of the in-phase and quadrature received signals. The proposed technique considers diverging-wave transmission and achieves improved image resolution and contrast compared with standard delay-and-sum beamforming while enabling a high frame rate. Incorporating 2-D sparse arrays into our method creates SCOBA-3D: a sparse beamformer that offers significant element reduction and, thus, allows performing 3-D imaging with the resources typically available for 2-D setups. To create 2-D thinned arrays, we present a scalable and systematic way to design 2-D fractal sparse arrays. The proposed framework paves the way for affordable ultrafast US devices that perform high-quality 3-D imaging, as demonstrated using phantom and ex-vivo data.

A Study on Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer Periodic Sparse Array

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) is an ultrasonic transducer based on the microelectromechanical system (MEMS). CMUT elements are easily made into a high-density array, which will increase the hardware complexity. In order to reduce the number of active channels, this paper studies the grating lobes generated by CMUT periodic sparse array (PSA) pairs. Through the design of active element positions in the transmitting and receiving processes, the simulation results of effective aperture and beam patterns show that the common grating lobes (CGLs) generated by the transmit and receive array are eliminated. On the basis of point targets imaging, a CMUT linear array with 256 elements is used to carry out the PSA pairs experiment. Under the same sparse factor (SF), the optimal sparse array configuration can be selected to reduce the imaging artifacts. This conclusion is of great significance for the application of CMUT in three-dimensional ultrasound imaging.

Architecture for an Ultrasound Advanced Open Platform With an Arbitrary Number of Independent Channels

Ultrasound open platforms are programmable and flexible tools for the development and test of novel methods. In most cases, they embed the electronics for the independent control of (maximum) 256 probe elements. However, a higher number of channels is needed for the control of 2-D array probes. This paper presents a system architecture that, through the hardware and software synchronization of multiple ULA-OP 256 scanners, may implement advanced open platforms with an arbitrary number of channels. The proposed solution needs a single personal computer, maintains real-time features, and preserves portability. A prototype demonstrator, composed of two ULA-OP 256 scanners connected to 512 elements of a matrix array, was implemented and tested according to different channel configurations. Experiments performed under MATLAB control confirmed that by doubling the number of elements (from 256 to 512) the signal-to-noise and contrast ratios improve by 9 dB and 3 dB, respectively. Furthermore, as a full 512-channel scanner, the demonstrator can produce real-time B-mode images at 18 Hz, high enough for probe positioning during acquisitions. Also, the demonstrator permitted the implementation of a new high frame rate, bi-plane, triplex modality. All probe elements are excited to simultaneously produce two planar, perpendicular diverging waves. Each scanner independently processes the echoes received by the 256 connected elements to beamform 1300 frames per second. For each insonified plane, good quality morphological (B-mode), qualitative (color flow-), and quantitative (spectral-) Doppler images are finally shown in real-time by a dedicated interface.

Real-Time 3-D Spectral Doppler Analysis With a Sparse Spiral Array

2-D sparse arrays may push the development of low-cost 3-D systems, not needing to control thousands of elements by expensive application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). However, there is still some concern about their suitability in applications, such as Doppler investigation, which inherently involve poor signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). In this article, a novel real-time 3-D pulsed-wave (PW) Doppler system, based on a 256-element 2-D spiral array, is presented. Coded transmission (TX) and matched filtering were implemented to improve the system SNR. Standard sonograms as well as multigate spectral Doppler (MSD) profiles, along lines that can be arbitrarily located in different planes, are presented. The performance of the system was assessed quantitatively on experimental data obtained from a straight tube flow phantom. An SNR increase of 11.4 dB was measured by transmitting linear chirps instead of standard sinusoidal bursts. For a qualitative assessment of the system performance in more realistic conditions, an anthropomorphic phantom of the carotid arteries was used. Finally, real-time B-mode and MSD images were obtained from healthy volunteers.

3-D Large-Pitch Synthetic Transmit Aperture Imaging With a Reduced Number of Measurement Channels: A Feasibility Study

A 3-D synthetic transmit aperture ultrasound imaging system with a fully addressed array usually leads to high hardware complexity and cost since each element in the array is individually controlled. To reduce the hardware complexity, we had presented the large-pitch synthetic transmit aperture (LPSTA) ultrasound imaging for 2-D imaging using a 1-D phased array to reduce the number of measurement channels M (the product of number of transmissions, [Formula: see text], and the number of receiving channels in each transmission, [Formula: see text]). In this article, we extend this method to a 2-D matrix array for 3-D imaging. We present both numerical simulations and experimental measurements. We combined L × L adjacent elements into transmission subapertures (SAP) and K × K adjacent elements into receive SAPs in synthetic transmit aperture (STA) imaging. In the image reconstruction, we conducted the first attempt to apply and integrate Gaussian-approximated spatial response function (G-SRF) with delay and sum (DAS) to improve the image contrast, especially for the near-field targets. The imaging performance obtained from G-SRF was also evaluated numerically and compared with the previously presented frequency-domain SRF (Freq-domain SRF). The 3-D large-pitch synthetic transmit aperture (3-D-LPSTA) with G-SRF can provide a computationally efficient solution compared with the standard 3-D-STA method. With approximately 1900-fold reduction in the number of measurement channels, 3-D-LPSTA can provide image contrast comparable with the standard 3-D-STA with a full array and significantly better than using a periodically sparse array with similar complexity. In addition to reducing the system complexity, the 3-D-LPSTA achieves 700-fold reduction in computational complexity and 523-fold reduction in data storage. Finally, we evaluated and implemented the G-SRF using phantom data, which were consistent with the simulation results showing that the G-SRF can improve the image contrast. The results demonstrate that the proposed 3-D-LPSTA shows the great potential for designing an inexpensive ultrasound system to ensure the real-time 3-D clinical ultrasound imaging using large arrays. The limits of the proposed method were also discussed.

Sparse channel sampling for ultrasound localization microscopy (SPARSE-ULM)

Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) has recently enabled the mapping of the cerebral vasculaturein vivowith a resolution ten times smaller than the wavelength used, down to ten microns. However, with frame rates up to 20000 frames per second, this method requires large amount of data to be acquired, transmitted, stored, and processed. The transfer rate is, as of today, one of the main limiting factors of this technology. Herein, we introduce a novel reconstruction framework to decrease this quantity of data to be acquired and the complexity of the required hardware by randomly subsampling the channels of a linear probe. Method performance evaluation as well as parameters optimization were conductedin silicousing the SIMUS simulation software in an anatomically realistic phantom and then compared toin vivoacquisitions in a rat brain after craniotomy. Results show that reducing the number of active elements deteriorates the signal-to-noise ratio and could lead to false microbubbles detections but has limited effect on localization accuracy. In simulation, the false positive rate on microbubble detection deteriorates from 3.7% for 128 channels in receive and 7 steered angles to 11% for 16 channels and 7 angles. The average localization accuracy ranges from 10.6μm and 9.93μm for 16 channels/3 angles and 128 channels/13 angles respectively. These results suggest that a compromise can be found between the number of channels and the quality of the reconstructed vascular network and demonstrate feasibility of performing ULM with a reduced number of channels in receive, paving the way for low-cost devices enabling high-resolution vascular mapping.

Fast 3-D Velocity Estimation in 4-D Using a 62 + 62 Row-Column Addressed Array

This article presents an imaging scheme capable of estimating the full 3-D velocity vector field in a volume using row-column addressed arrays (RCAs) at a high volume rate. A 62 + 62 RCA array is employed with an interleaved synthetic aperture sequence. It contains repeated emissions with rows and columns interleaved with B-mode emissions. The sequence contains 80 emissions in total and can provide continuous volumetric data at a volume rate above 125 Hz. A transverse oscillation cross correlation estimator determines all three velocity components. The approach is investigated using Field II simulations and measurements using a specially built 3-MHz 62 + 62 RCA array connected to the SARUS experimental scanner. Both the B-mode and flow sequences have a penetration depth of 14 cm when measured on a tissue-mimicking phantom (0.5-dB/[ [Formula: see text]] attenuation). Simulations of a parabolic flow in a 12-mm-diameter vessel at a depth of 30 mm, beam-to-flow angle of 90°, and xy-rotation of 45° gave a standard deviation (SD) of (3.3, 3.4, 0.4)% and bias of (-3.3, -3.9, -0.1)%, for ( v_x , v_y , and v_z ). Decreasing the beam-to-flow angle to 60° gave an SD of (8.9, 9.1, 0.8)% and bias of (-7.6, -9.5, -7.2)%, showing a slight increase. Measurements were carried out using a similar setup, and pulsing at 2 kHz yielded comparable results at 90° with an SD of (5.8, 5.5, 1.1)% and bias of (1.4, -6.4, 2.4)%. At 60°, the SD was (5.2, 4.7 1.2)% and bias (-4.6, 6.9, -7.4)%. Results from measurements across all tested settings showed a maximum SD of 6.8% and a maximum bias of 15.8% for a peak velocity of 10 cm/s. A tissue-mimicking phantom with a straight vessel was used to introduce clutter, tissue motion, and pulsating flow. The pulsating velocity magnitude was estimated across ten pulse periods and yielded an SD of 10.9%. The method was capable of estimating transverse flow components precisely but underestimated the flow with small beam-to-flow angles. The sequence provided continuous data in both time and space throughout the volume, allowing for retrospective analysis of the flow. Moreover, B-mode planes can be selected retrospectively anywhere in the volume. This shows that tensor velocity imaging (full 3-D volumetric vector flow imaging) can be estimated in 4-D ( x, y, z, and t ) using only 62 channels in receive, making 4-D volumetric imaging implementable on current scanner hardware.

Wideband 2-D sparse array optimization combined with multiline reception for real-time 3-D medical ultrasound

Three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound medical imaging provides advantages over a traditional 2-D visualization method. However, the use of a 2-D array to acquire 3-D images may result in a transducer composed of thousands of elements and a large amount of data in the front-end, making it impractical to implement high volume rate imaging and individually control all elements with the scanner. This paper proposes an original approach, valid for wideband operations centered on the design center frequency, to maintain a limited number of active elements and firing events, while preserving high resolution and volume rate. A 7 MHz 2-D array is composed of two circular concentric subparts. In the inner footprint the elements are distributed following a regular grid, while in the outer subpart a sparse non-grid solution is adopted. The inner circular dense array is composed of 256 elements with a pitch of 0.5λ. The overall footprint, delimited by the outer subpart, is equivalent to a 256-element array with a pitch of 1.5λ. All the elements of the inner subpart are activated in transmission. Following an optimization procedure, both subparts, including a subset of the elements placed in the inner footprint (i.e., sparse on-the-grid array) and the elements spread over the outer subpart (i.e., sparse off-the-grid array) are used to receive. A total number of 256 elements, defined by the sum of elements distributed in the inner and outer subparts, is fixed in reception. The proposed approach implies a multiline reception strategy, where for each transmission 3 × 3 firing events occur in reception. The sparse receive array is optimized by using a simulated annealing optimization. An original cost function is designed specifically to achieve successful results in wideband conditions. The receive array is optimized in order to obtain consistent results for different signal bandwidths of the excitation pulse. For all the desired bandwidths, the optimized array will provide the recovery of the lower lateral resolution of the transmission phase and, at the same time, a significant reduction of the undesired side lobe raised in the 3-D two-way beam pattern. The 3-D two-way beam pattern analysis reveals that the proposed solution is able to guarantee a lateral resolution of 1.35 mm at a focus depth of 25 mm for the three fractional signal bandwidths of interest (i.e., 30%, 50% and 70%) considered in the optimization process. The undesired side lobes are successfully suppressed especially when, as a consequence of the multiline strategy, non-coincident steering angles are used in transmission and reception. Moreover, thanks to the firing scheme adopted, a high-volume rate of 63 volumes per second may be achieved at the focus depth. The volume rate decreases to 32 volumes per second at twice the focal depth. Phantom image simulations show that the proposed method maintains a satisfactory and almost uniform image quality in terms of resolution and contrast for all the signal bandwidths of interest.

Subsampling Approaches for Compressed Sensing with Ultrasound Arrays in Non-Destructive Testing

Full Matrix Capture is a multi-channel data acquisition method which enables flexible, high resolution imaging using ultrasound arrays. However, the measurement time and data volume are increased considerably. Both of these costs can be circumvented via compressed sensing, which exploits prior knowledge of the underlying model and its sparsity to reduce the amount of data needed to produce a high resolution image. In order to design compression matrices that are physically realizable without sophisticated hardware constraints, structured subsampling patterns are designed and evaluated in this work. The design is based on the analysis of the Cramér–Rao Bound of a single scatterer in a homogeneous, isotropic medium. A numerical comparison of the point spread functions obtained with different compression matrices and the Fast Iterative Shrinkage/Thresholding Algorithm shows that the best performance is achieved when each transmit event can use a different subset of receiving elements and each receiving element uses a different section of the echo signal spectrum. Such a design has the advantage of outperforming other structured patterns to the extent that suboptimal selection matrices provide a good performance and can be efficiently computed with greedy approaches.

Design of 2D Sparse Array Transducers for Anomaly Detection in Medical Phantoms

Aperiodic sparse 2D ultrasonic array configurations, including random array, log spiral array, and sunflower array, have been considered for their potential as conformable transducers able to image within a focal range of 30-80 mm, at an operating frequency of 2 MHz. Optimisation of the imaging performance of potential array patterns has been undertaken based on their simulated far field directivity functions. Two evaluation criteria, peak sidelobe level (PSL) and integrated sidelobe ratio (ISLR), are used to access the performance of each array configuration. Subsequently, a log spiral array pattern with -19.33 dB PSL and 2.71 dB ISLR has been selected as the overall optimal design. Two prototype transducers with the selected log spiral array pattern have been fabricated and characterised, one using a fibre composite element composite array transducer (CECAT) structure, the other using a conventional 1-3 composite (C1-3) structure. The CECAT device demonstrates improved coupling coefficient (0.64 to 0.59), reduced mechanical cross-talk between neighbouring array elements (by 10 dB) and improved operational bandwidth (by 16.5%), while the C1-3 device performs better in terms of sensitivity (~50%). Image processing algorithms, such as Hough transform and morphological opening, have been implemented to automatically detect and dimension particles located within a fluid-filled tube structure, in a variety of experimental scenarios, including bespoke phantoms using tissue mimicking material. Experiments using the fabricated CECAT log spiral 2D array transducer demonstrated that this algorithmic approach was able to detect the walls of the tube structure and stationary anomalies within the tube with a precision of ~0.1 mm.

Gap-filling method for suppressing grating lobes in ultrasound imaging: Experimental study with deep-learning approach

Sparse arrays reduce the number of active channels that effectively increases the inter-element spacing. Large inter-element spacing results in grating lobe artifacts degrading the ultrasound image quality and reducing the contrast-to-noise ratio. A deep learning-based custom algorithm is proposed to estimate inactive channel data in periodic sparse arrays. The algorithm uses data from multiple active channels to estimate inactive channels. The estimated inactive channel data effectively reduces the inter-element spacing for beamforming, thus suppressing the grating lobes. Estimated inactive element channel data was combined with active element channel data resulting in a pseudo fully sampled array. The channel data was beamformed using a simple delay-and-sum method and compared with the sparse array and fully sampled array. The performance of the algorithm was validated using a wire target in a water tank, multi-purpose tissue-mimicking phantom, and in-vivo carotid data. Grating lobes suppression up to 15.25 dB was observed with an increase in contrast-to-noise (CNR) for the pseudo fully sampled array. Hypoechoic regions showed more improvement in CNR than hyperechoic regions. Root-mean-square error for unwrapped phase between fully sampled array and the pseudo fully sampled array was low, making the estimated data suitable for Doppler and elastography applications. Speckle pattern was also preserved; thus, the estimated data can also be used for quantitative ultrasound applications. The algorithm can improve the quality of sparse array images and has applications in small scale ultrasound devices and 2D arrays.

Design of a Volumetric Imaging Sequence Using a Vantage-256 Ultrasound Research Platform Multiplexed With a 1024-Element Fully Sampled Matrix Array

Ultrasound imaging using a matrix array allows real-time multi-planar volumetric imaging. To enhance image quality, the matrix array should provide fast volumetric ultrasound imaging with spatially consistent focusing in the lateral and elevational directions. However, because of the significantly increased data size, dealing with massive and continuous data acquisition is a significant challenge. We have designed an imaging acquisition sequence that handles volumetric data efficiently using a single 256-channel Verasonics ultrasound research platform multiplexed with a 1024-element matrix array. The developed sequence has been applied for building an ultrasonic pupilometer. Our results demonstrate the capability of the developed approach for structural visualization of an ex vivo porcine eye and the temporal response of the modeled eye pupil with moving iris at the volume rate of 30 Hz. Our study provides a fundamental ground for researchers to establish their own volumetric ultrasound imaging platform and could stimulate the development of new volumetric ultrasound approaches and applications.

3-D Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging With a 2-D Sparse Array

High-frame-rate 3-D ultrasound imaging technology combined with super-resolution processing method can visualize 3-D microvascular structures by overcoming the diffraction-limited resolution in every spatial direction. However, 3-D super-resolution ultrasound imaging using a full 2-D array requires a system with a large number of independent channels, the design of which might be impractical due to the high cost, complexity, and volume of data produced. In this study, a 2-D sparse array was designed and fabricated with 512 elements chosen from a density-tapered 2-D spiral layout. High-frame-rate volumetric imaging was performed using two synchronized ULA-OP 256 research scanners. Volumetric images were constructed by coherently compounding nine-angle plane waves acquired at a pulse repetition frequency of 4500 Hz. Localization-based 3-D super-resolution images of two touching subwavelength tubes were generated from 6000 volumes acquired in 12 s. Finally, this work demonstrates the feasibility of 3-D super-resolution imaging and super-resolved velocity mapping using a customized 2-D sparse array transducer.

Spectral Doppler Measurements With 2-D Sparse Arrays

The 2-D sparse arrays, in which a few hundreds of elements are distributed on the probe surface according to an optimization procedure, represent an alternative to full 2-D arrays, including thousands of elements usually organized in a grid. Sparse arrays have already been used in B-mode imaging tests, but their application to Doppler investigations has not been reported yet. Since the sparsity of the elements influences the acoustic field, a corresponding influence on the mean frequency (Fm), bandwidth (BW), and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the Doppler spectra is expected. This article aims to assess, by simulations and experiments, to what extent the use of a sparse rather than a full gridded 2-D array has an impact on spectral Doppler measurements. Parabolic flows were investigated by a 3 MHz, 1024-element gridded array and by a sparse array; the latter was obtained by properly selecting a subgroup of 256 elements from the full array. Simulations show that the mean Doppler frequency does not change between the sparse and the full array while there are significant differences on the BW (average reduction of 17.2% for the sparse array, due to different apertures of the two probes) and on the signal power (Ps) (22 dB, due to the different number of active elements). These results are confirmed by flow phantom experiments, which also highlight that the most critical difference between sparse and full gridded array in Doppler measurements is in terms of SNR (-16.8 dB).

High-Frame-Rate Tri-Plane Echocardiography With Spiral Arrays: From Simulation to Real-Time Implementation

Major cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are associated with (regional) dysfunction of the left ventricle. Despite the 3-D nature of the heart and its dynamics, the assessment of myocardial function is still largely based on 2-D ultrasound imaging, thereby making diagnosis heavily susceptible to the operator's expertise. Unfortunately, to date, 3-D echocardiography cannot provide adequate spatiotemporal resolution in real-time. Hence, tri-plane imaging has been introduced as a compromise between 2-D and true volumetric ultrasound imaging. However, tri-plane imaging typically requires high-end ultrasound systems equipped with fully populated matrix array probes embedded with expensive and little flexible electronics for two-stage beamforming. This article presents an advanced ultrasound system for real-time, high frame rate (HFR), and tri-plane echocardiography based on low element count sparse arrays, i.e., the so-called spiral arrays. The system was simulated, experimentally validated, and implemented for real-time operation on the ULA-OP 256 system. Five different array configurations were tested together with four different scan sequences, including multi-line and planar diverging wave transmission. In particular, the former can be exploited to achieve, in tri-plane imaging, the same temporal resolution currently used in clinical 2-D echocardiography, at the expenses of contrast (-3.5 dB) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) (-8.7 dB). On the other hand, the transmission of planar diverging waves boosts the frame rate up to 250 Hz, but further compromises contrast (-10.5 dB), SNR (-9.7 dB), and lateral resolution (+46%). In conclusion, despite an unavoidable loss in image quality and sensitivity due to the limited number of elements, HFR tri-plane imaging with spiral arrays is shown to be feasible in real-time and may enable real-time functional analysis of all left ventricular segments of the heart.

Sparse Rectangular and Spiral Array Designs for 3D Medical Ultrasound Imaging

In three-dimensional (3D) medical ultrasound imaging with two-dimensional (2D) arrays, sparse 2D arrays have been studied to reduce the number of active channels. Among them, sparse 2D arrays with regular or uniform arrangements of elements have advantages of low side lobe energy and uniform field responses over the entire field of view. This paper presents two uniform sparse array models: sparse rectangular arrays (SRAs) on a rectangular grid and sparse spiral arrays (SSAs) on a sunflower grid. Both arrays can be easily implemented on the commercially available or the custom-made arrays. To suppress the overall grating lobe levels, the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) array pairs of both the array models are designed not to have grating lobes at the same locations in the Tx/Rx beam patterns, for which the theoretical design rules are also proposed. Computer simulation results indicate that the proposed array pairs for both the SRAs and the SSAs achieve peak grating lobe levels below -40 dB using about a quarter of the number of elements in the dense rectangular array while maintaining similar beam widths to that of the dense array pair.

Simultaneous transmission and reception on all elements of an array: binary code excitation

Pulse-echo arrays are used in radar, sonar, seismic, medical and non-destructive evaluation. There is a trend to produce arrays with an ever-increasing number of elements. This trend presents two major challenges: (i) often the size of the elements is reduced resulting in a lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and (ii) the time required to record all of the signals that correspond to every transmit-receive path increases. Coded sequences with good autocorrelation properties can increase the SNR while orthogonal sets can be used to simultaneously acquire all of the signals that correspond to every transmit-receive path. However, a central problem of conventional coded sequences is that they cannot achieve good autocorrelation and orthogonality properties simultaneously due to their length being limited by the location of the closest reflectors. In this paper, a solution to this problem is presented by using coded sequences that have receive intervals. The proposed approach can be more than one order of magnitude faster than conventional methods. In addition, binary excitation and quantization can be employed, which reduces the data throughput by roughly an order of magnitude and allows for higher sampling rates. While this concept is generally applicable to any field, a 16-element system was built to experimentally demonstrate this principle for the first time using a conventional medical ultrasound probe.

Sparse Convolutional Beamforming for Ultrasound Imaging

The standard technique used by commercial medical ultrasound systems to form B-mode images is delay and sum (DAS) beamforming. However, DAS often results in limited image resolution and contrast that are governed by the center frequency and the aperture size of the ultrasound transducer. A large number of elements lead to improved resolution but at the same time increase the data size and the system cost due to the receive electronics required for each element. Therefore, reducing the number of receiving channels while producing high-quality images is of great importance. In this paper, we introduce a nonlinear beamformer called COnvolutional Beamforming Algorithm (COBA), which achieves significant improvement of lateral resolution and contrast. In addition, it can be implemented efficiently using the fast Fourier transform. Based on the COBA concept, we next present two sparse beamformers with closed-form expressions for the sensor locations, which result in the same beam pattern as DAS and COBA while using far fewer array elements. Optimization of the number of elements shows that they require a minimal number of elements that are on the order of the square root of the number used by DAS. The performance of the proposed methods is tested and validated using simulated data, phantom scans, and in vivo cardiac data. The results demonstrate that COBA outperforms DAS in terms of resolution and contrast and that the suggested beamformers offer a sizable element reduction while generating images with an equivalent or improved quality in comparison with DAS.

Receiver array design for sonothrombolysis treatment monitoring in deep vein thrombosis

High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can disintegrate blood clots through the generation and stimulation of bubble clouds within thrombi. This work examined the design of a device to image bubble clouds for monitoring cavitation-based HIFU treatments of deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Acoustic propagation simulations were carried out on multi-layered models of the human thigh using two patient data sets from the Visible Human Project. The design considerations included the number of receivers (32, 64, 128, 256, and 512), their spatial positioning, and the effective angular array aperture (100° and 180° about geometric focus). Imaging array performance was evaluated for source frequencies of 250, 750, and 1500 kHz. Receiver sizes were fixed relative to the wavelength (pistons, diameter  =  λ/2) and noise was added at levels that scaled with receiver area. With a 100° angular aperture the long axis size of the  -3 dB main lobe was ~1.2λ-i.e. on the order of the vessel diameter at 250 kHz (~7 mm). Increasing the array aperture to span 180° about the geometric focus reduced the long axis by a factor of ~2. The smaller main lobe sizes achieved by imaging at higher frequencies came at the cost of increased levels of sensitivity to phase aberrations induced during acoustic propagation through the intervening soft tissue layers. With noise added to receiver signals, images could be reconstructed with peak sidelobe ratios  <  -3 dB using single-cycle integration times for source frequencies of 250 and 750 kHz (NRx  ⩾  128). At 1500 kHz, longer integration times and/or higher element counts were required to achieve similar peak sidelobe ratios. Our results suggest that a modest number of receivers(i.e. NRx  =  128) arranged on a semi-cylindrical shell may be sufficient to enable passive acoustic imaging with single-cycle integration times (i.e. volumetric rates up to 0.75 MHz) for monitoring cavitation-based HIFU treatments of DVT.

High-Volume-Rate 3-D Ultrasound Imaging Based on Synthetic Aperture Sequential Beamforming With Chirp-Coded Excitation

Three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound imaging is a promising modality for many medical applications. Unfortunately, it generates voluminous data in the front end, making it unattractive for high-volume-rate portable medical applications. We apply synthetic aperture sequential beamforming (SASB) to greatly compress the front-end receive data. Baseline 3-D SASB has a low volume rate, because subapertures fire one by one. In this paper, we propose to increase the volume rate of 3-D SASB without degrading imaging quality through: 1) transmitting and receiving simultaneously with four subapertures and 2) using linear chirps as the excitation waveform to reduce interference. We design four linear chirps that operate on two overlapped frequency bands with chirp pairs in each band having opposite chirp rates. Direct implementation of this firing scheme results in grating lobes. Therefore, we design a sparse array that mitigates the grating lobe levels through optimizing the locations of transducer elements in the bin-based random array. Compared with the baseline 3-D SASB, the proposed method increases the volume rate from 8.56 to 34.2 volumes/s without increasing the front-end computation requirement. Field-II-based cyst simulations show that the proposed method achieves imaging quality comparable with baseline 3-D SASB in both shallow and deep regions.

Towards using a focussed phased array of millimetre length scale elements for ultrasound imaging

Sparse phased array ultrasound transducers with millimetre length scale elements have previously been proposed for generating hyperthermia but not for imaging. Numerical simulation with a pseudospectral solver was used to investigate: (a) how the position of the maximum pressure in the focal region changed with element diameter and frequency; (b) how the size and position of the focal region changed with focal distance under steering; and (c) the imaging performance of 15 element random arrays. These analyses were performed for both piston-like and non piston-like millimetre diameter elements since previous work has shown a shift in the distance to the maximum pressure in the focal region with the latter. The results for these elements were compared with elements where the diameter was  <λ/2. The distance from the array to the position of maximum pressure in the focal region diverged from the value with element diameter  <λ/2; values for piston-like elements increased positively whilst values for non piston-like elements increased negatively. With distances expressed in λ, no difference was found for arrays at 1 MHz and 2.5 MHz. For piston-like elements, but not for non piston-like elements, two peaks were found in the focal region which were in-line with the direction of propagation for a focus on the central axis but which rotated to become parallel with the direction of propagation when steering exceeded 20°. The size and position of the focal region under steering was similar for the non piston-like elements and elements with diameter  <λ/2. Little difference was found in image quality or the size of the point spread function (PSF) between images at 2.5 MHz with piston-like and non piston-like behaviour for steering angles less than 20° when compared with a linear array of similar size. These results suggest that imaging with random arrays of millimetre length scale elements is possible.

Ultrasound Open Platforms for Next-Generation Imaging Technique Development

Open platform (OP) ultrasound systems are aimed primarily at the research community. They have been at the forefront of the development of synthetic aperture, plane wave, shear wave elastography, and vector flow imaging. Such platforms are driven by a need for broad flexibility of parameters that are normally preset or fixed within clinical scanners. OP ultrasound scanners are defined to have three key features including customization of the transmit waveform, access to the prebeamformed receive data, and the ability to implement real-time imaging. In this paper, a formative discussion is given on the development of OPs from both the research community and the commercial sector. Both software- and hardware-based architectures are considered, and their specifications are compared in terms of resources and programmability. Software-based platforms capable of real-time beamforming generally make use of scalable graphics processing unit architectures, whereas a common feature of hardware-based platforms is the use of field-programmable gate array and digital signal processor devices to provide additional on-board processing capacity. OPs with extended number of channels (>256) are also discussed in relation to their role in supporting 3-D imaging technique development. With the increasing maturity of OP ultrasound scanners, the pace of advancement in ultrasound imaging algorithms is poised to be accelerated.

Experimental 3-D Ultrasound Imaging with 2-D Sparse Arrays using Focused and Diverging Waves

Three dimensional ultrasound (3-D US) imaging methods based on 2-D array probes are increasingly investigated. However, the experimental test of new 3-D US approaches is contrasted by the need of controlling very large numbers of probe elements. Although this problem may be overcome by the use of 2-D sparse arrays, just a few experimental results have so far corroborated the validity of this approach. In this paper, we experimentally compare the performance of a fully wired 1024-element (32 × 32) array, assumed as reference, to that of a 256-element random and of an “optimized” 2-D sparse array, in both focused and compounded diverging wave (DW) transmission modes. The experimental results in 3-D focused mode show that the resolution and contrast produced by the optimized sparse array are close to those of the full array while using 25% of elements. Furthermore, the experimental results in 3-D DW mode and 3-D focused mode are also compared for the first time and they show that both the contrast and the resolution performance are higher when using the 3-D DW at volume rates up to 90/second which represent a 36x speed up factor compared to the focused mode.

Micro-beamforming with Error Compensation

One of the main issues in the development of 2D arrays is the high system complexity due to the requirement for a large number of elements. 2D array systems suffer from high system complexity. Micro-beamforming (MBF) method has been proposed to reduce the system complexity; however, distortions of MBF approach such as focusing errors of post-beamforming process results in broadening the main lobe and increasing the side-lobe and grating-lobe levels, which together degrade the image quality. As the pre-steered radio-frequency (RF) data can be estimated from MBF data at the digital back end, better post-beamforming can be performed and higher image quality can be achieved. In this study, a compensation approach is proposed to estimate the pre-steered RF data from MBF data by utilizing additional headers and compensation factors. The compensation factors and headers are estimated at the probe front end and then applied to the back-end digital system to reconstruct the required pre-steered RF data. As the absolute values of the MBF errors are modeled as a single-sided Gaussian distribution, the theoretical mean square error (MSE) with the proposed method is approximately 2.75 times lower than that of its counterpart without compensation; this implies better reconstruction of pre-steered RF data can be achieved with the proposed method. The simulation results showed that the main lobe is improved, and the side-lobe and grating-lobe levels in both the lateral and elevation directions were improved by 11.73 dB and 19.12 dB, respectively, while the peak signal-to-noise ratios improved by 6-9 dB with the proposed method. The contrast-to-noise ratios also are enhanced by 0.5 dB when using the proposed method. Analog circuits are presented to demonstrate that this novel compensation method can be realized in practice. The reduction of cables and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are about 7-fold compared to fully-sampled 2D array systems as 4 by 4 channels are grouped for the proposed method as well.

Fast computation of far-field pulse-echo PSF of arbitrary arrays for large sparse 2-D ultrasound array design

Large wideband two-dimensional (2-D) arrays are essential for high-resolution three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound imaging. Since the tremendous element number of a full sampled large 2-D array is not affordable in any practical 3-D ultrasound imaging system, it is necessary to reduce the element number through sparse 2-D array design. Sparse array design requires that both the positions and weights of the array elements should be arbitrarily alterable. Hence a proper evaluation tool that can deal with arbitrary array is integral to optimizing the array structure and apodization function. It is known that pulse-echo point spread function (PSF) has been a common tool used to evaluate the performance of wideband arrays in ultrasound imaging all along, which also plays an important role in wideband ultrasound simulations. However, so far the conventional ultrasound simulation tools can only calculate pulse-echo PSF of arbitrary wideband arrays in the time domain because of the existence of nonuniform nodes in the spatial impulse response expressions, which obstructs their application of FFT to do fast computation of the time-domain convolutions. As a result, ultra-high time consumption of pulse-echo PSF computation of a large arbitrary wideband array hampers it to be taken as the evaluation tool by any stochastic optimization methods which need massive iterations in designing large sparse 2-D arrays. This paper aims to make available the pulse-echo PSF tool in designing large sparse 2-D arrays by proposing a fast computation method of far-field pulse-echo PSFs of arbitrary wideband arrays. In the paper, fast computation of wideband spatial impulse responses of a 2-D array is first realized in frequency domain by employing the nonuniform fast Fourier transform (NUFFT), under the point source assumption in far-field. On the basis of that, fast computation of time-domain convolutions is made possible by using FFT. In addition, a short inverse FFT (IFFT) is applied in recovering the time-domain envelopes rather than the detailed waveforms of beam pulses to extract the pulse-echo PSF, which further accelerates the computation. Compared with the computation speed of the time domain method, i.e. Field II, the proposed method achieves an improvement of three orders of magnitude with comparable accuracy for a 100×100 wideband 2-D array. The proposed method makes it possible for applying stochastic optimization methods to design arbitrary large wideband 2-D arrays using pulse-echo PSF as the evaluation tool.

Wideband 2-D Array Design Optimization With Fabrication Constraints for 3-D US Imaging

Ultrasound (US) 2-D arrays are of increasing interest due to their electronic steering capability to investigate 3-D regions without requiring any probe movement. These arrays are typically populated by thousands of elements that, ideally, should be individually driven by the companion scanner. Since this is not convenient, the so-called microbeamforming methods, yielding a prebeamforming stage performed in the probe handle by suitable custom integrated circuits, have so far been implemented in a few commercial high-end scanners. A possible approach to implement relatively cheap and efficient 3-D US imaging systems is using 2-D sparse arrays in which a limited number of elements can be coupled to an equal number of independent transmit/receive channels. In order to obtain US beams with adequate characteristics all over the investigated volume, the layout of such arrays must be carefully designed. This paper provides guidelines to design, by using simulated annealing optimization, 2-D sparse arrays capable of fitting specific applications or fabrication/implementation constraints. In particular, an original energy function based on multidepth 3-D analysis of the beam pattern is also exploited. A tutorial example is given, addressed to find the N _e elements that should be activated in a 2-D fully populated array to yield efficient acoustic radiating performance over the entire volume. The proposed method is applied to a 32 ×32 array centered at 3 MHz to select the 128, 192, and 256 elements that provide the best acoustic performance. It is shown that the 256-element optimized array yields sidelobe levels even lower (by 5.7 dB) than that of the reference 716-element circular and (by 10.3 dB) than that of the reference 1024-element array.

2-D Ultrasound Sparse Arrays Multidepth Radiation Optimization Using Simulated Annealing and Spiral-Array Inspired Energy Functions

Full matrix arrays are excellent tools for 3-D ultrasound imaging, but the required number of active elements is too high to be individually controlled by an equal number of scanner channels. The number of active elements is significantly reduced by the sparse array techniques, but the position of the remaining elements must be carefully optimized. This issue is faced here by introducing novel energy functions in the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm. At each iteration step of the optimization process, one element is freely translated and the associated radiated pattern is simulated. To control the pressure field behavior at multiple depths, three energy functions inspired by the pressure field radiated by a Blackman-tapered spiral array are introduced. Such energy functions aim at limiting the main lobe width while lowering the side lobe and grating lobe levels at multiple depths. Numerical optimization results illustrate the influence of the number of iterations, pressure measurement points, and depths, as well as the influence of the energy function definition on the optimized layout. It is also shown that performance close to or even better than the one provided by a spiral array, here assumed as reference, may be obtained. The finite-time convergence properties of SA allow the duration of the optimization process to be set in advance.

Reconstruction of Enhanced Ultrasound Images From Compressed Measurements Using Simultaneous Direction Method of Multipliers

High-resolution ultrasound (US) image reconstruction from a reduced number of measurements is of great interest in US imaging, since it could enhance both frame rate and image resolution. Compressive deconvolution (CD), combining compressed sensing and image deconvolution, represents an interesting possibility to consider this challenging task. The model of CD includes, in addition to the compressive sampling matrix, a 2-D convolution operator carrying the information on the system point spread function. Through this model, the resolution of reconstructed US images from compressed measurements mainly depends on three aspects: the acquisition setup, i.e., the incoherence of the sampling matrix, the image regularization, i.e., the sparsity prior, and the optimization technique. In this paper, we mainly focused on the last two aspects. We proposed a novel simultaneous direction method of multipliers based optimization scheme to invert the linear model, including two regularization terms expressing the sparsity of the RF images in a given basis and the generalized Gaussian statistical assumption on tissue reflectivity functions. The performance of the method is evaluated on both simulated and in vivo data.

ULA-OP 256: A 256-Channel Open Scanner for Development and Real-Time Implementation of New Ultrasound Methods

Open scanners offer an increasing support to the ultrasound researchers who are involved in the experimental test of novel methods. Each system presents specific performance in terms of number of channels, flexibility, processing power, data storage capability, and overall dimensions. This paper reports the design criteria and hardware/software implementation details of a new 256-channel ultrasound advanced open platform. This system is organized in a modular architecture, including multiple front-end boards, interconnected by a high-speed (80 Gb/s) ring, capable of finely controlling all transmit (TX) and receive (RX) signals. High flexibility and processing power (equivalent to 2500 GFLOP) are guaranteed by the possibility of individually programming multiple digital signal processors and field programmable gate arrays. Eighty GB of on-board memory are available for the storage of prebeamforming, postbeamforming, and baseband data. The use of latest generation devices allowed to integrate all needed electronics in a small size ( 34 cm ×30 cm ×26 cm). The system implements a multiline beamformer that allows obtaining images of 96 lines by 2048 depths at a frame rate of 720 Hz (expandable to 3000 Hz). The multiline beamforming capability is also exploited to implement a real-time vector Doppler scheme in which a single TX and two independent RX apertures are simultaneously used to maintain the analysis over a full pulse repetition frequency range.

Recent technological advancements in breast ultrasound

Ultrasound is becoming increasingly common as an imaging tool for the detection and characterization of breast tumors. This paper provides an overview of recent technological advancements, especially those that may have an impact in clinical applications in the field of breast ultrasound in the near future. These advancements include close to 100% fractional bandwidth high frequency (5-18MHz) 2D and 3D arrays, automated breast imaging systems to minimize the operator dependence and advanced processing techniques, such as those used for detection of microcalcifications. In addition, elastography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound examinations that are expected to further enhance the clinical importance of ultrasound based breast tumor screening are briefly reviewed. These techniques have shown initial promise in clinical trials and may translate to more comprehensive clinical adoption in the future.

Fast Computation of Wideband Beam Pattern for Designing Large-Scale 2-D Arrays

For real-time and high-resolution 3-D ultrasound imaging, the design of sparse distribution and weights of elements of a large-scale wideband 2-D array is needed to reduce hardware cost and achieve better directivity. However, due to the high time consumption of computing the wideband beam pattern, the design methods that need massive iterations have rarely been applied to design large-scale wideband 2-D arrays by directly computing the wideband beam pattern. In this paper, a fast method is proposed to realize the computation of a wideband beam pattern of arbitrary 2-D arrays in the far field in order to design large-scale wideband 2-D arrays. The proposed fast method exploits two important techniques: 1) nonuniform fast Fourier transform (FFT) and 2) short inverse FFT. Compared with the commonly used ultrasound simulator Field II, two orders of magnitude improvement in computation speed is achieved with comparable accuracy. The proposed fast method enables massive iterations of direct wideband beam pattern computation of arbitrary large-scale 2-D arrays. A design example in this paper demonstrates that the proposed fast method can help achieve better performance in designing large-scale wideband 2-D arrays.

Sub-Nyquist Sampling and Fourier Domain Beamforming in Volumetric Ultrasound Imaging

A key step in ultrasound image formation is digital beamforming of signals sampled by several transducer elements placed upon an array. High-resolution digital beamforming introduces the demand for sampling rates significantly higher than the signals' Nyquist rate, which greatly increases the volume of data that must be transmitted from the system's front end. In 3-D ultrasound imaging, 2-D transducer arrays rather than 1-D arrays are used, and more scan lines are needed. This implies that the amount of sampled data is vastly increased with respect to 2-D imaging. In this work, we show that a considerable reduction in data rate can be achieved by applying the ideas of Xampling and frequency domain beamforming (FDBF), leading to a sub-Nyquist sampling rate, which uses only a portion of the bandwidth of the ultrasound signals to reconstruct the image. We extend previous work on FDBF for 2-D ultrasound imaging to accommodate the geometry imposed by volumetric scanning and a 2-D grid of transducer elements. High image quality from low-rate samples is demonstrated by simulation of a phantom image composed of several small reflectors. Our technique is then applied to raw data of a heart ventricle phantom obtained by a commercial 3-D ultrasound system. We show that by performing 3-D beamforming in the frequency domain, sub-Nyquist sampling and low processing rate are achievable, while maintaining adequate image quality.