An Improved Second-odrer Sampling Method for Digital Beam Forming in Ultrasound Imaging Systems

초음파 영상 시스템에서 디지탈 Beam Forming을 위한 개선된 2차 샘플링 방법

The lateral resolution in an ultrasound imaging system is one of the most important factors for quality of the image and is determined by the beam focusing. For the better lateral resolution SDF(Sampled Delay Focusing) capable of digital focusing was proposed. The second-order sampling, one of band-width sampling methods, is suggested as being the best suitable for SDF because it allows total digital processing and is simple and economical. By proving that it introduces too much error, this article shows the second-order sampling is not appropriate for sampling of the wide-band signal generally used in ultrasound imaging systems. Also, this article suggests new sampling methods that maintain the advantages and reduce the unavoidable errors of the second-order sampling method. From computer simulation it is expected that the proposed methods reduce the errors of the second-order sampling method and can be used in real applications.