Subarray coherence based postfilter for eigenspace based minimum variance beamformer in ultrasound plane-wave imaging

Ultrasonics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 23-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinxin Zhao ◽  
Yuanyuan Wang ◽  
Jinhua Yu ◽  
Wei Guo ◽  
Tianjie Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plane Wave ◽  
Minimum Variance ◽  
Wave Imaging

scholarly journals 2-D Minimum Variance Based Plane Wave Compounding with Generalized Coherence Factor in Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 4099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanxing Qi ◽  
Yuanyuan Wang ◽  
Jinhua Yu ◽  
Yi Guo
Keyword(s):  
Plane Wave ◽  
Ultrasound Imaging ◽  
Contrast Ratio ◽  
Minimum Variance ◽  
Frame Rate ◽  
In Vivo Studies ◽  
Coherence Factor ◽  
Wave Imaging ◽  
Phantom Experiments

Plane wave compounding (PWC) is an effective modality for ultrafast ultrasound imaging. It can provide higher resolution and better noise reduction than plane wave imaging (PWI). In this paper, a novel beamformer integrating the two-dimensional (2-D) minimum variance (MV) with the generalized coherence factor (GCF) is proposed to maintain the high resolution and contrast along with a high frame rate for PWC. To specify, MV beamforming is adopted in both the transmitting aperture and the receiving one. The subarray technique is therefore upgraded into the sub-matrix division. Then, the output of each submatrix is used to adaptively compute the GCF using a 2-D fast Fourier transform (FFT). After the 2-D MV beamforming and the 2-D GCF weighting, the final output can be obtained. Results of simulations, phantom experiments, and in vivo studies confirm the advantages of the proposed method. Compared with the delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformer, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) is 90% smaller and the contrast ratio (CR) improvement is 154% in simulations. The over-suppression of desired signals, which is a typical drawback of the coherence factor (CF), can be effectively avoided. The robustness against sound velocity errors is also enhanced.

scholarly journals Plane Wave Imaging through Interfaces

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 4967
Author(s):  
Guillermo Cosarinsky ◽  
Jorge F. Cruza ◽  
Jorge Camacho
Keyword(s):  
Image Quality ◽  
Plane Wave ◽  
Phased Array ◽  
Mathematical Formulation ◽  
Non Destructive Testing ◽  
Arbitrary Geometry ◽  
Destructive Testing ◽  
Wave Imaging ◽  
Imaging Strategy ◽  
Non Destructive

Plane Wave Imaging (PWI) has been recently proposed for fast ultrasound inspections in the Non-Destructive-Testing (NDT) field. By using a single (or a reduced number) of plane wave emissions and parallel beamforming in reception, frame rates of hundreds to thousands of images per second can be achieved without significant image quality losses with regard to the Total Focusing Method (TFM) or Phased Array (PA). This work addresses the problem of applying PWI in the presence of arbitrarily shaped interfaces, which is a common problem in NDT. First, the mathematical formulation for generating a plane wave inside a component of arbitrary geometry is given, and the characteristics of the resultant acoustic field are analyzed by simulation, showing plane wavefronts with non-uniform amplitude. Then, an imaging strategy is proposed, accounting for this amplitude effect. Finally, the proposed method is experimentally validated, and its application limits are discussed.

scholarly journals Micro Non-Uniform Linear Array (MNULA) for Ultrasound Plane Wave Imaging

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 640
Author(s):  
Yujia Tang ◽  
Zhangjian Li ◽  
Yaoyao Cui ◽  
Chen Yang ◽  
Jiabing Lv ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plane Wave ◽  
Linear Array ◽  
Near Field ◽  
Uniform Linear Array ◽  
Imaging Technology ◽  
Linear Arrays ◽  
Imaging Quality ◽  
Imaging Results ◽  
Wave Imaging ◽  
Laboratory Technology

Ultrasound plane wave imaging technology has been applied to more clinical situations than ever before because of its rapid imaging speed and stable imaging quality. Most transducers used in plane wave imaging are linear arrays, but their structures limit the application of plane wave imaging technology in some special clinical situations, especially in the endoscopic environment. In the endoscopic environment, the size of the linear array transducer is strictly miniaturized, and the imaging range is also limited to the near field. Meanwhile, the near field of a micro linear array has serious mutual interferences between elements, which is against the imaging quality of near field. Therefore, we propose a new structure of a micro ultrasound linear array for plane wave imaging. In this paper, a theoretical comparison is given through sound field and imaging simulations. On the basis of primary work and laboratory technology, micro uniform and non-uniform linear arrays were made and experimented with the phantom setting. We selected appropriate evaluation parameters to verify the imaging results. Finally, we concluded that the micro non-uniform linear array eliminated the artifacts better than the micro uniform linear array without the additional use of signal processing methods, especially for target points in the near-field. We believe this study provides a possible solution for plane wave imaging in cramped environments like endoscopy.

scholarly journals DMAS Beamforming with Complementary Subset Transmit for Ultrasound Coherence-Based Power Doppler Detection in Multi-Angle Plane-Wave Imaging

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 4856
Author(s):  
Che-Chou Shen ◽  
Yen-Chen Chu
Keyword(s):  
Plane Wave ◽  
Power Doppler ◽  
P Value ◽  
Low Resolution ◽  
Ensemble Averaging ◽  
Stationary Tissue ◽  
Wave Imaging ◽  
Acquisition Delay ◽  
Complementary Subset ◽  
Low Resolution Images

Conventional ultrasonic coherent plane-wave (PW) compounding corresponds to Delay-and-Sum (DAS) beamforming of low-resolution images from distinct PW transmit angles. Nonetheless, the trade-off between the level of clutter artifacts and the number of PW transmit angle may compromise the image quality in ultrafast acquisition. Delay-Multiply-and-Sum (DMAS) beamforming in the dimension of PW transmit angle is capable of suppressing clutter interference and is readily compatible with the conventional method. In DMAS, a tunable p value is used to modulate the signal coherence estimated from the low-resolution images to produce the final high-resolution output and does not require huge memory allocation to record all the received channel data in multi-angle PW imaging. In this study, DMAS beamforming is used to construct a novel coherence-based power Doppler detection together with the complementary subset transmit (CST) technique to further reduce the noise level. For p = 2.0 as an example, simulation results indicate that the DMAS beamforming alone can improve the Doppler SNR by 8.2 dB compared to DAS counterpart. Another 6-dB increase in Doppler SNR can be further obtained when the CST technique is combined with DMAS beamforming with sufficient ensemble averaging. The CST technique can also be performed with DAS beamforming, though the improvement in Doppler SNR and CNR is relatively minor. Experimental results also agree with the simulations. Nonetheless, since the DMAS beamforming involves multiplicative operation, clutter filtering in the ensemble direction has to be performed on the low-resolution images before DMAS to remove the stationary tissue without coupling from the flow signal.

scholarly journals High Resolution, High Contrast Beamformer Using Minimum Variance and Plane Wave Nonlinear Compounding with Low Complexity

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 394
Author(s):  
Xin Yan ◽  
Yanxing Qi ◽  
Yinmeng Wang ◽  
Yuanyuan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Plane Wave ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Contrast Ratio ◽  
Low Complexity ◽  
Minimum Variance ◽  
Frame Rate ◽  
Channel Noise ◽  
Length Estimation ◽  
Lower Dimensional Space

The plane wave compounding (PWC) is a promising modality to improve the imaging quality and maintain the high frame rate for ultrafast ultrasound imaging. In this paper, a novel beamforming method is proposed to achieve higher resolution and contrast with low complexity. A minimum variance (MV) weight calculated by the partial generalized sidelobe canceler is adopted to beamform the receiving array signals. The dimension reduction technique is introduced to project the data into lower dimensional space, which also contributes to a large subarray length. Estimation of multi-wave receiving covariance matrix is performed and then utilized to determine only one weight. Afterwards, a fast second-order reformulation of the delay multiply and sum (DMAS) is developed as nonlinear compounding to composite the beamforming output of multiple transmissions. Simulations, phantom, in vivo, and robustness experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Compared with the delay and sum (DAS) beamformer, the proposed method achieved 86.3% narrower main lobe width and 112% higher contrast ratio in simulations. The robustness to the channel noise of the proposed method is effectively enhanced at the same time. Furthermore, it maintains a linear computational complexity, which means that it has the potential to be implemented for real-time response.

Ultrafast plane wave imaging: Doppler frequency distribution

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno-Felix Osmanski ◽  
Gabriel Montaldo ◽  
Jeremy Bercoff ◽  
Thanasis Loupas ◽  
Mathias Fink ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plane Wave ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Doppler Frequency ◽  
Wave Imaging
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