Peralta Laura, Mazierli Daniele, Gomez Alberto, Hajnal Joseph V, Tortoli Piero, Ramalli Alessandro
IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. 2023 Mar;70(3):197-206. doi: 10.1109/TUFFC.2023.3241774. Epub 2023 Feb 24.
Coherent multitransducer ultrasound (CoMTUS) creates an extended effective aperture through the coherent combination of multiple arrays, which results in images with enhanced resolution, extended field-of-view, and higher sensitivity. The subwavelength localization accuracy of the multiple transducers required to coherently beamform the data is achieved by using the echoes backscattered from targeted points. In this study, CoMTUS is implemented and demonstrated for the first time in 3-D imaging using a pair of 256-element 2-D sparse spiral arrays, which keep the channel count low and limit the amount of data to be processed. The imaging performance of the method was investigated using both simulations and phantom tests. The feasibility of free-hand operation is also experimentally demonstrated. Results show that, in comparison with a single dense array system using the same total number of active elements, the proposed CoMTUS system improves spatial resolution (up to ten times) in the direction where both arrays are aligned, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR; up to 46%), and generalized CNR (gCNR; up to 15%). Overall, CoMTUS shows a narrower main lobe and higher CNR, which results in an increased dynamic range and better target detectability.
相干多换能器超声（CoMTUS）通过多个阵列的相干组合创建一个扩展的有效孔径，这使得图像具有更高的分辨率、更宽的视野和更高的灵敏度。通过使用从目标点反向散射的回波，可实现对数据进行相干波束形成所需的多个换能器的亚波长定位精度。在本研究中，首次使用一对256阵元二维稀疏螺旋阵列在三维成像中实现并演示了CoMTUS，该阵列保持通道数较低，并限制了要处理的数据量。使用模拟和体模测试研究了该方法的成像性能。还通过实验证明了徒手操作的可行性。结果表明，与使用相同总数有源元件的单个密集阵列系统相比，所提出的CoMTUS系统在两个阵列对齐的方向上提高了空间分辨率（高达十倍）、对比度噪声比（CNR；高达46%）和广义CNR（gCNR；高达15%）。总体而言，CoMTUS显示出更窄的主瓣和更高的CNR，这导致动态范围增加和更好的目标可检测性。
