Research on Ultrasonic Imaging Systems Based on Scattering Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel ultrasonic imaging technique based on scattering field theory, enabling shape and property reconstruction of scatterers with fewer channels by solving a derived wave propagation PDE.

Contribution

It develops a new imaging method using a 2D ultrasonic array and scattering field theory, reducing channel requirements for high-resolution imaging.

Findings

Successful visualization of target shape and reflection intensity

Feasibility demonstrated with fewer channels than array elements

Reconstruction based on boundary conditions from measurement data

Abstract

In an ultrasonic array system, increasing the aperture size to achieve a high resolution requires more transmit and receive channels, thus making it essential to have an analysis technique that can reconstruct the shape and physical properties of scatterers in a finite time based on measurement data obtained from numerous ultrasonic elements. Herein, we developed an ultrasound imaging technique using a two-dimensional ultrasonic array system comprising N^2 transmitter/receiver pairs and a technique for controlling it with a 2N-channel transmitter/receiver circuit. In addition, we derived a partial differential equation that describes wave propagation in the scattering field where the transmitter and receiver arrays are orthogonally arranged, based on scattering field theory. By analytically solving this equation, we derived an imaging function that incorporates the measurement data as boundary conditions. Moreover, we visualized the spatial distribution of reflection intensity corresponding to the target shape by measuring reflected waves from the target using this measurement system and performing reconstruction calculations based on scattering field theory. We demonstrated the feasibility of ultrasonic imaging by combining ultrasonic measurements using a smaller number of channels than the number of ultrasonic elements and scattering field theory and using the measurement results as boundary conditions.