• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.403-411
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• 2023

Functional ultrasound imaging, such as elasticity imaging and micro-blood flow Doppler imaging, enhances diagnostic capability by providing useful mechanical and functional information about tissues. However, the implementation of functional ultrasound imaging poses limitations such as the storage of vast amounts of data in Radio Frequency (RF) data acquisition and processing. In this paper, we propose a sub-Nyquist approach that reduces the amount of acquired axial samples for efficient shear-wave elasticity imaging. The proposed method acquires data at a sampling rate one-third lower than the conventional Nyquist sampling rate and tracks shear-wave signals through RF signals reconstructed using band-pass filtering-based interpolation. In this approach, the RF signal is assumed to have a fractional bandwidth of 67 %. To validate the approach, we reconstruct the shear-wave velocity images using shear-wave tracking data obtained by conventional and proposed approaches, and compare the group velocity, contrast-to-noise ratio, and structural similarity index measurement. We qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate the potential of sub-Nyquist sampling-based shear-wave elasticity imaging, indicating that our approach could be practically useful in three-dimensional shear-wave elasticity imaging, where a massive amount of ultrasound data is required.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.862-877
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• 2008

In this paper, two types of wideband 3-dB ring hybrids are compared and discussed to show the ring hybrid with a set of coupled-line sections better. However, the better one still has a realization problem that perfect matching can be achieved only with -3 dB coupling power. To solve the problem, a set of coupled-line sections with two shorts is synthesized using one- and two-port equivalent circuits and design equations are derived to have perfect matching, regardless of the coupling power. Based on the design equations, a modified ${\Pi}-type$ of transmission-line equivalent circuit is newly suggested. It consists of coupled-line sections with two shorts and two open stubs and can be used to reduce a transmission-line section, especially when its electrical length is greater than ${\pi}$. Therefore, the $3\;{\lambda}/4$ transmission-line section of a conventional ring hybrid can be reduced to less than ${\pi}/2$. To verify the modified ${\Pi}-type$ of transmission- line equivalent circuit, two kinds of simulations are carried out; one is fixing the electrical length of the coupled-line sections and the other fixing its coupling coefficient. The simulation results show that the bandwidths of resulting small transmission lines are strongly dependent on the coupling power. Using modified and conventional ${\Pi}-types$ of transmission-line equivalent circuits, a small ring hybrid is built and named a compact wideband coupled-line ring hybrid, due to the fact that a set of coupled-line sections is included. One of compact ring hybrids is compared with a conventional ring hybrid and the compared results demonstrate that the bandwidth of a proposed compact ring hybrid is much wider, in spite of being more than three times smaller in size. To test the compact ring hybrids, a microstrip compact ring hybrid, whose total transmission-line length is $220^{\circ}$, is fabricated and measured. The measured power divisions($S_{21}$, $S_{41}$, $S_{23}$ and $S_{43}$) are -2.78 dB, -3.34 dB, -2.8 dB and -3.2 dB, respectively at a design center frequency of 2 GHz, matching and isolation less than -20 dB in more than 20 % fractional bandwidth.