• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.243-251
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• 2002

Synthetic zinc wave employs Pulsed plane wave as transmit beam with linear time delay curve. The received echoes in different transmit directions at different transmit times are superposed at imaging Points with Proper time delay compensation using synthetic focusing scheme. This scheme. which uses full aperture in transmit, obtains a high SNR image, and also features high lateral resolution by using two way dynamic focusing at all imaging depths. In this Paper, we consider the Problems in realization of synthetic zinc wave. Also. we have applied the scheme to obtain phantom and in-vivo images using a linear array of 5 MHz. In phantom test. experimental images show high resolution over a more extended imaging depth than conventional fixed Point transmit and receive dynamic focusing schemes In-vivo images show that the resolution could not overcome conventional focusing systems because of motion blurring and(or) aberration of tissue. but the frame rate tan be increased by a factor of more than 5 compared to conventional focusing schemes. with competitive resolution at all imaging depths .

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.14-22
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• 1998

기존의 널리 사용되는 초음파 영상진단기에서는 수신집속은 모든 점에 대해 행하는 것이 가능하지만 송신접속은 미리 정해진 수 개의 점에 대해서만 행하는 한계가 있다. 본 논문에서는 영상화할 대상이 정지해 있거나 매우 느리게 움직이는 경우에 한하여, 송신음장 의 집속은 합성집속방법(synthetic focusing)을 사용하고, 수신집속은 동적 집속(dynamic receive focusing)을 이용함으로써 모든 영상점에서 송수신 집속하여 측방향 해상도를 향상 시키는 방법을 제안하였다. 컴퓨터 시뮬레이션 결과 초점깊이에서와 같은 해상도를 유지하 는 음장거리(fields of depth)가 기존의 방법에 비하여 월등히 우수하였으며, 3.5MHz의 선형 배열변환기를 이용하여 펜텀 영상에 대한 실험 결과도 모든 영상 깊이에서 측방향 해상도가 기존의 B-mode의 영상보다 우수하였다.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.200-209
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• 2014

In this paper, we present a general model for synthetic transmit focusing method using plane waves (STF-PW) of which the properties are investigated through mathematical analysis and compared with those of the conventional focusing method. The analysis results show that STF-PW produces non-diffracting beams in the sense that their main lobe widths do not change with depth. We also present a method for synthesis of plane waves to obtain a desired main lobe width while preventing grating lobe generation and a method for broadening the region over which the non-diffracting property is maintained. The proposed model and analysis results were validated through computer simulations.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.419-430
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• 2002

In this paper. we propose an efficient method for implementing hi-directional pixel-based focusing(BiPBF) based on a sparse array imaging technique. The proposed method can improve spatial resolution and frame rate of ultrasound imaging with reduced hardware complexity by synthesizing transmit apertures with a small number of sparsely distributed subapertures. As the distance between adjacent subapertures increases, however. the image resolution tends to decrease due to the elevation of grating lobes. Such grating lobes can be eliminated in conventional synthetic aperture imaging techniques. On the contrary, grating lobes arisen from employing sparse synthetic transmit apertures can not be eliminated, which has been shown analytically in this paper. We also propose the condition and method for suppressing the grating lobes below -40dB, which is generally required in practical imaging. by placing the transmit focal depth at a near depth and properly selecting the subaperture distance in Proportion to receive aperture size. The results of both the Phantom and in vivo experiments show that the proposed method implements two-wav dynamic focusing using a smaller number of subapertures, resulting in reduced system complexity and increased frame rate.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.503-513
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• 1999

A general expression for the beam patterns of various synthetic aperture(SA) techniques was derived based on a unified SA model. This model was used to analyze and compare the performance of existing SA methods. Based on the theoretical studies, we propose a new synthetic aperture technique that is best suitable for the linear-scan imaging. The proposed method enables dynamic tow-way focusing in real imaging so that the B-mode image resolution can be greatly improved. Compared to the conventional focusing technique, the focused beam pattern by the proposed shows the mainlobe width reduced by half and comparable sidelobe levels. Computer simulation results demonstrated the validity of the theoretical analysis and the proposed SA method.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.403-414
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• 2004

In the accompanying paper, we proposed a real. time volumetric imaging method using a cross array based on receive dynamic focusing and synthetic aperture focusing along lateral and elevational directions, respetively. But synthetic aperture methods using spherical waves are subject to beam spreading with increasing depth due to the wave diffraction phenomenon. Moreover, since the proposed method uses only one element for each transmission, it has a limited transmit power. To overcome these limitations, we propose a new real. time volumetric imaging method using cross arrays based on synthetic aperture technique with linear wave fronts. In the proposed method, linear wave fronts having different angles on the horizontal plane is transmitted successively from all transmit array elements. On receive, by employing the conventional dynamic focusing and synthetic aperture methods along lateral and elevational directions, respectively, ultrasound waves can be focused effectively at all imaging points. Mathematical analysis and computer simulation results show that the proposed method can provide uniform elevational resolution over a large depth of field. Especially, since the new method can construct a volume image with a limited number of transmit receive events using a full transmit aperture, it is suitable for real-time 3D imaging with high transmit power and volume rate.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.67-71
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• 1998

초음파 선형트랜스듀서에서 제한회절음장은 영상깊이에서 다른 방향으로 진행하는 평면파들의 선형적인 중첩으로부터 구한다. 제한회절음장을 구현하기 위한 송신음장은 영상 깊이를 지나가는 평면파들의 공간적인 확장으로부터 구해지는데 실제의 하드웨어로 구현하 기 어렵다. 본 논문은 진행방향이 다른 pulsed mode 평면파를 각각 송신한 후, 얻어진 데이 터로부터 합성집속 방법에 의하여 제한회절빔을 구현하였다. 제안한 방법은 모든 송신소자 에서 발사되는 음장의 크기가 동일하므로 송신전력이 증가하여 신호대잡음비와 명암비를 증 가시키며 간단한 하드웨어로 구현이 가능하다. 시뮬레이션 결과는 송신은 한점집속, 수신은 동적집속을 사용하는 기존의 방법과 비교하여 주엽(mainlobe)의 폭과 부엽(sidelobe)의 크기 관점에서 우수함을 증명하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.521-537
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• 2000

Ultrasonic imaging is the most widely used modality among modern imaging device for medical diagnosis and the system performance has been improved dramatically since early 90's due to the rapid advances in DSP performance and VLSI technology that made it possible to employ more sophisticated algorithms. This paper describes "main stream" digital signal processing functions along with the associated implementation considerations in modern medical ultrasound imaging systems. Topics covered include signal processing methods for resolution improvement, ultrasound imaging system architectures, roles and necessity of the applications of DSP and VLSI technology in the development of the medical ultrasound imaging systems, and array signal processing techniques for ultrasound focusing.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.391-401
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• 2004

3D imaging systems using 2D phased arrays have a large number of active channels, compelling to use a very expensive and bulky beamforming hardware, and suffer from low volume rate because, in principle, at least one ultrasound transmit-receive event is necessary to construct each scanline. A high speed 3D imaging method using a cross array proposed previously to solve the above limitations can implement fast scanning and dynamic focusing in the lateral direction but suffer from low resolution except at the fixed transmit focusing along the elevational direction. To overcome these limitations, we propose a new real-time volumetric imaging method using a cross array based on the synthetic aperture technique. In the proposed method, ultrasound wave is transmitted successively using each elements of an 1D transmit array transducer, one at a time, which is placed along the elevational direction and for each firing, the returning pulse echoes are received using all elements of an 1D receive array transducer placed along the lateral direction. On receive, by employing the conventional dynamic focusing and synthetic aperture method along lateral and elevational directions, respectively, ultrasound waves can be focused effectively at all imaging points. In addition, in the proposed method, a volume of interest consisting of any required number of slice images, can be constructed with the same number of transmit-receive steps as the total number of transmit array elements. Computer simulation results show that the proposed method can provide the same and greatly improved resolutions in the lateral and elevational directions, respectively, compared with the 3D imaging method using a cross array based on the conventional fixed focusing. In the accompanying paper, we will also propose a new real-time 3D imaging method using a cross array for improving transmit power and elevational spatial resolution, which uses linear wave fronts on transmit.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.203-213
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• 2023

In medical ultrasound imaging systems, Side lobes may appear if signals outside the imaging point are not completely removed during receive focusing. If the time signal of the side lobe overlaps with the time signal (main lobe) from the image point, it is difficult to completely remove it using filter processing in the time domain. However, In the receive focusing process, when time-channel signals are Fourier-transformed, the main lobe and side lobe signals are spatially separated in the spectral domain. Therefore, the side lobes can be suppressed by multiplying the image with magnitude weights, which are determined by the magnitudes of the main and side lobes calculated in the spectral domain. In addition, when the main lobe and the side lobe spectrum are adjacent, the distance weight was applied based on the distance between them. In a 5 MHz ultrasound imaging system using a 64-channel linear transducer, point reflector and speckle images with cysts of various brightness were synthesized and weights were applied to the ultrasound image. Using computer simulations, we confirmed that the side lobes were greatly reduced without affecting the spatial resolution in the point reflector image, and the contrast was significantly improved in the cyst image with computer simulations.