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Ultrasound Arrays
Contents
Introduction to ultrasound with arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Imaging array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Phased array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Image formation with phased arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Steering and focusing via delays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Receive steering (and focusing) viewed as propagation delays
Beamforming with real signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Demodulation/baseband approach to beamforming . . . . . .
Image formation and sector scans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PSF analysis for a phased array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Beam steering with (linear) phased array . . . . . . . . . . .
Angular sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Linear array with focusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Quadratic phase errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Outline
Image formation
Transmit steering
Receive delays
Sector scans
Using real signals
Baseband processing
PSF analysis
Array design parameters
Steering
Sampling
Dynamic focusing
A.1
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A.2
A.2
A.2
A.2
A.3
A.6
A.7
A.9
A.12
A.14
A.19
A.22
A.23
A.24
A.25
A.2
A.3
1T
Body
(0,0)
pn (t)
nT
pN (t)
T
N
A.4
r d(xn ; r, )
+
.
c
c
v1 (t)
x
1R
vn (t)
vN (t)
R
N
(0,0)
Body
(r, )
N
R
dN
For a given direction , how should we use the signals {vn (t)} to estimate the reflectivity at all points (r, )?
A.5
v1 (t)
s1 (x, y)
Patient
vn (t)
sn (x, y)
Delay 1R
..
.
vN (t)
R
Delay N
1
N
v(t)
PN
n=1 vn (t
nR )
sN (x, y)
Delay nR
A.6
p
x2 cos2
(xn r sin )2 + (0 r cos )2 r xn sin + n
r xn sin .
2r
Let T denote the time required for the transmitted pulse to propagate from the transducer to the point (r, ).
If the pulse can be thought of as emanating from the transducer center, then what is T ? Answer: T = T (r) = r/c.
If there is a reflector or scatterer at (r, ), then the time required for the pulse to return from the reflector to the nth transducer
element is dn /c = d(xn ; r, )/c. So the echo time is T + dn /c. Thus the natural estimate of reflectivity is:
N
1 X
d(x
;
r,
)
n
) = gain(r)
vn T (r) +
R(r,
.
N
c
n=1
(A.1)
If we sample the signals vn (t), then the above expression really is just a form of table lookup.
(This expression would be the essence of what is required for the project if we did RF beamforming.)
0) = gain(r) |v(2r/c)| = gain(r) |v(r/c + r/c)| .
Compare this to our image formation equation for a single transducer: R(r,
Why do we take the envelope after summing?
Answer: to get destructive interference of echoes returning from reflectors in other locations.
All this talk about delays may seem unusual because the delay d(xn ; r, )/c depends on r, so it is not a simple signal delay,
unless there were only a single reflector at known position (r, ), which is unrealistic.
However, in the far field we can use the first-order approximation dn = d(xn ; r, ) r xn sin . Then we have
T (r) +
d(xn ; r, )
2r xn sin
=
.
c
c
c
, where v(t) , 1
R(r, ) = gain(r) v
vn (t nR ),
c
N n=1
nR ,
xn sin
.
c
(A.2)
Thus the signal v(t) is the average of appropriately delayed versions of the individual transducer output signals.
The delays here are all relative to the signal from the center of the array (xn = 0), for which d(0; r, ) = r.
However, the above treatment achieves only beam steering, not dynamic receive focusing. We form images with better spatial
resolution by using dynamic receive focusing, such as is provided by the preceding table lookup formula (A.1). We will return
to this later.
A.7
For pulse transmission, assume that each of the N transducer elements is fired by the same pulse shape p(t), but possibly its own
amplitude Tn and with its own delay nT . Then the applied pressure at the transducer plane is the superposition of the contribution
from each element: i.e.,
N
X
u(P0 , t) =
sn (x0 , y0 ) Tn p(t nT ) .
n=1
Also assume that transmit delays are applied to steer the beam in the desired direction , i.e., nT = nT () = (xn sin )/c.
For considering timing issues, (as opposed to analyzing the entire PSF) we treat each transducer element as a point at (xn , 0, 0):
sn (x, y) = 2 (x xn ) (y) .
Combining the above assumptions with the diffraction formula, the incident pressure field at P1 = (r sin , 0, r cos ) is:
ZZ
cos 01 1 d
r01
dx0 dy0
u(P1 , t) =
u P0 , t
r01 2c dt
c
ZZ
cos
1 d
r01
dx0 dy0
u P0 , t
r
2c dt
c
ZZ X
N
cos
r01
1 d
=
dx0 dy0
p t nT
sn (x0 , y0 ) Tn
r
2c dt
c
n=1
N
cos X T 1 d
dn
= 2
p t nT
n
r n=1 2c dt
c
N
cos X T
dn
sin(0 (t nT dn /c) + 0 )
n a t nT
r/ n=1
c
N
cos X T
a(t T ) sin(0 (t T ) + 0 ) .
r/ n=1 n
In the final line of the above analysis of the transmit part, we used the far-field approximation dn = d(xn ; r, ) r xn sin , for
which nT +dn /c r/c = T . In fact, we even invoked that approximation within the sinusoid term. Physically, we are assuming
that along the line at angle in the far field, the pressures induced by all the transducer elements add coherently. Under these
approximations, the far-field incident pressure is
u(P1 , t) T
cos
a(t T ) sin(0 (t T ) + 0 ),
r/
P
where the total transmit amplitude is T , n Tn .
The incident pressure is essentially a (scaled and differentiated and) delayed version of the pulse from the center element.
A.8
If the object is a single Dirac impulse reflector at P1 , a fraction R(r, ) of this incident pressure is reflected back to the transducer
plane. Thus again using the diffraction formula (with reciprocity), back at the transducer plane the reflected pressure is
d(x; r, )
cos 1 d
u P1 , t
u(x, t) = u((x, 0, 0), t) R(r, )2
r 2c dt
c
cos
d(x; r, )
cos
1
d(x;
r,
)
d
R(r, )2
T
a t
T sin 0 t
T + 0
r 2c dt
r/
c
c
2
d(x; r, )
d(x; r, )
cos
T
2
T
T
cos 0 t
+ 0 .
a t
R(r, )
r
c
c
The key property to note is that we transmitted an amplitude-modulated sinusoid, and what returns from a single reflector is also
an amplitude-modulated sinusoid.
For an ideal point transducer element, the output voltage is (proportional to) the incident pressure:
vn (t) =
u(xn , t) hn (t)
2
cos
dn
dn
2
T
T
KR(r, )
cos 0 t
+ n ,
a t
r
c
c
(A.3)
where hn (t) denotes the impulse response of the nth transducer element. The factor K includes T and the magnitude response
|Hn (f0 )| of the nth transducer element, and the phase difference n 0 is induced by the corresponding phase response Hn (f0 ).
Now that we have the above signal equation, we can contemplate image formation.
Image formation with the RF signals
By convention, assume that the peak value of a(t) is at t = 0. Then based on (A.3), the natural reflectivity estimate is
N
1 X
d(x
;
r,
)
n
) , gain(r)
R(r,
vn T +
,
N
c
n=1
(A.4)
However, small errors in the delays nT , nR , and the (unknown) phases {n } can lead to destructive interference rather than coherent
summing, yielding degraded reflectivity estimates.
The basic problem here is that each signal vn (t) oscillates at RF frequencies (0 is 1-10 MHz), making (A.4) sensitive to small
timing differences.
A practical solution to this problem is to first convert the signal to baseband.