# Fast and Accurate Plane Wave and Color Doppler Imaging with the FOCUS Software Package

## TL;DR

The FOCUS software package enables fast and accurate simulations of ultrasound imaging techniques like plane wave and color Doppler, using a novel computational framework.

## Contribution

A new simulation framework based on the fast nearfield method enables efficient and accurate ultrasound imaging simulations with realistic speckle patterns.

## Key findings

- FOCUS achieves rapid convergence and lower error rates compared to conventional methods like Field II.
- The framework can simulate hundreds of thousands of scatterers without a full 3D grid, producing realistic speckle patterns.
- Plane wave imaging simulations with 100,000 scatterers complete in minutes on a personal computer.

## Abstract

A comprehensive framework for ultrasound imaging simulations is presented. Solutions to an inhomogeneous wave equation are provided, yielding a linear model for characterizing ultrasound propagation and scattering in soft tissue. This simulation approach, which is based upon the fast nearfield method, is implemented in the Fast Object-oriented C++ Ultrasound Simulator (FOCUS) and is extended to a range of imaging modalities, including synthetic aperture, B-mode, plane wave, and color Doppler imaging. The generation of radiofrequency (RF) data and the receive beamforming techniques employed for each imaging modality, along with background on color Doppler imaging, are described. Simulation results demonstrate rapid convergence and lower error rates compared to conventional spatial impulse response methods and Field II, resulting in substantial reductions in computation time. Notably, the framework effectively simulates hundreds of thousands of scatterers without the need for a full three-dimensional (3D) grid, and the inherent randomness in the scatterer distributions produces realistic speckle patterns. A plane wave imaging example, for instance, achieves high fidelity using 100,000 scatterers with five steering angles, and the simulation is completed on a personal computer in a few minutes. Furthermore, by modeling scatterers as moving particles, the simulation framework captures dynamic flow conditions in vascular phantoms for color Doppler imaging. These advances establish FOCUS as a robust, versatile tool for the rapid prototyping, validation, and optimization of both established and novel ultrasound imaging techniques.