Pulse compression technique for simultaneous HIFU surgery and ultrasonic imaging: a preliminary study

In an ultrasound image-guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) surgery, reflected HIFU waves received by an imaging transducer should be suppressed for real-time simultaneous imaging and therapy. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of pulse compression scheme combined with notch filtering in order to minimize these HIFU interference signals. A chirp signal modulated by the Dolph-Chebyshev window with 3-9 MHz frequency sweep range is used for B-mode imaging and 4 MHz continuous wave is used for HIFU. The second order infinite impulse response notch filters are employed to suppress reflected HIFU waves whose center frequencies are 4 MHz and 8 MHz. The prototype integrated HIFU/imaging transducer that composed of three rectangular elements with a spherically con-focused aperture was fabricated. The center element has the ability to transmit and receive 6 MHz imaging signals and two outer elements are only used for transmitting 4 MHz continuous HIFU wave. When the chirp signal and 4 MHz HIFU wave are simultaneously transmitted to the target, the reflected chirp signals mixed with 4 MHz and 8 MHz HIFU waves are detected by the imaging transducer. After the application of notch filtering with pulse compression process, HIFU interference waves in this mixed signal are significantly reduced while maintaining original imaging signal. In the single scanline test using a strong reflector, the amplitude of the reflected HIFU wave is reduced to −45 dB. In vitro test, with a sliced porcine muscle shows that the speckle pattern of the restored B-mode image is close to that of the original image. These preliminary results demonstrate the potential for the pulse compression scheme with notch filtering to achieve real-time ultrasound image-guided HIFU surgery.     

Sound speed profile characterization by the image source method

This paper presents the first results of an imaging technique that measures the geoacoustic structure of a seafloor in shallow water areas. The devices used were a broadband (100 Hz-6 kHz) acoustic source towed by a ship and a vertical array. Among all the acoustic paths existing in the water column, two are used: the direct one and the seabed-reflected one, the latter being composed of the reflections from the seafloor's surface as well as that from each buried layer. Due to the good time resolution of the signal and to the short range configuration, the reflected signal can be modeled as a sum of contributions coming from image sources relative to the seabed layers. The seabed geometry and the sound speed profile can then be recovered with the detection and localization of these image sources. The map of the image sources is obtained by a function that combines back-propagation of signals and knowledge of the emitted pulse. The thickness and sound-speed of each layer is finally obtained by a position analysis of the image sources. The results obtained by this data-driven algorithm on both at-sea and synthetic data are satisfactory.     

A computer model for simulating reflected ultrasound signals

This letter describes a model for simulating an ultrasound signal reflected from a medium composed of randomly distributed scatterers, as typified by soft biological tissue, such as liver. The model is specified in terms of the effective transducer beam radius B and the mean scatterer spacing S. The novel feature of the model is that the transducer field is partitioned by packing cylinders, called microbeams, into concentric annular regions that lie parallel to the transducer axis. The radii of the microbeams and the annuli are related to S. An independent reflector sequence is generated for each microbeam, the microbeam sequences in each annulus are summed and convolved with the impulse response of a point reflector. The reflected waveform sequence is then generated by summing the annular contributions and convolving with a band-limited pulse waveform. Simulated signals were generated for different values of B and S and compared with actual signals reflected from two in vivo livers and a tissue-equivalent phantom. Estimates of the kurtosis for the simulated signals indicate the range of signals that can be generated by varying the values for S and B.     

超声换能器对线性调频信号脉冲压缩性能的影响分析*

该文研究了不同编码带宽下超声换能器对编码信号脉冲压缩后信噪比与轴向分辨率的影响关系。将脉冲压缩后的时域峰值转化为频域积分的形式，得到考虑换能器影响的脉冲压缩信噪比公式。以线性调频信号为例，仿真与实验结果表明，编码激励相对于方波激励的信噪比增益随编码带宽的减小而增大，因为受换能器带宽限制，编码激励的轴向分辨率随编码带宽的增大先减小后趋于稳定。该研究为编码激励方法更有效地应用于超声检测的背景中提供了参考。     

超声阵列的多频脉冲压缩方法研究

脉冲压缩方法通过采用编码信号激励与脉冲压缩接收来提高超声检测的时间分辨率和信噪比。然而,受换能器带宽的限制,编码信号的时间带宽积往往有限,影响脉冲压缩效果。开展了基于超声阵列的多频脉冲压缩方法研究,超声阵列是由具有不同中心频率和带宽的多个阵元组成,从而使得整个阵列具有比单个换能器更宽的带宽。提出了压缩后叠加取包络的脉冲压缩方法,并研究了这种方法在提高时间分辨率和主副瓣比上的技术方案,对多频脉冲压缩的超声阵列进行了设计与优化,发现多频脉冲压缩方法能很大程度地提高时间分辨率,并能有效地抑制各阵元信号叠加产生的周期副瓣。理论和实验结果表明,这种压缩后叠加取包络的方法得到的时间分辨率在性能上受阵元带内不平整度的影响很小,能使阵元压缩包络中的主副瓣比得到明显改善。      

Experimental investigation of the pulse inversion technique for imaging ultrasound contrast agents

The application of ultrasound contrast agents aims to detect low velocity blood flow in the microcirculation. To enhance discrimination between tissue and blood containing the contrast agent, harmonic imaging is used. Harmonic imaging requires the application of narrow-band signals and is obscured by high levels of native harmonics generated in an intervening medium. To improve discrimination between contrast agent and native harmonics, a pulse inversion technique has been proposed. Pulse inversion allows wide-band signals, thus preserving the axial resolution. The present study examines the interference of native harmonics and discusses the practical difficulties of wide-band pulse inversion measurements of harmonics by a single transducer. Native harmonics are not eliminated by pulse inversion. Furthermore, only even harmonics remain and are amplified by 6 dB, alleviating the requirement for selective filtering. Finally, it is shown that the contaminating third harmonic contained in the square wave activation signal leaks through in the emitted signal. The spectral location of the contaminating third harmonic is governed by the transducer spectral characteristics while the location of the native and contrast agent second harmonics is not. Thus the contaminating third harmonic and the native and contrast agent second harmonics may overlap and interfere. Optimal discrimination requires a balance between maximal sensitivity for the second harmonic at reception and minimal interference from the contaminating third harmonic.     

Source Range Estimation Based on Pulse Waveform Matching in a Slope Environment

An approach of source range estimation in an ocean environment with sloping bottom is presented. The approach is based on pulse waveform correlation matching between the received and simulated signals. An acoustic propagation experiment is carried out in a slope environment. The pulse signal is received by the vertical line array,and the depth structure can be obtained. For the experimental data, the depth structures of pulse waveforms are different, which depends on the source range. For a source with unknown range, the depth structure of pulse waveform can be first obtained from the experimental data. Next, the depth structures of pulse waveforms in different ranges are numerically calculated. After the process of correlating the experimental and simulated signals,the range corresponding to the maximum value of the correlation coefficient is the estimated source range. For the explosive sources in the experiment with two depths, the mean relative errors of range estimation are both less than 7%.     

Transducer resolution enhancement by combining different excitation pulses

This work presents a low-cost solution to improve the axial resolution of an arbitrarily loaded and backed piezoelectric transducer. The proposed solution is based on the use of different excitation pulses and, in particular, the combination of two excitation pulses. The characteristic parameters of the second pulse, i.e. amplitude and time delay with respect to the main pulse, are obtained by studying the waveform of a reference pulse emitted or received by the transducer. This reference pulse is the transducer's response to a generic excitation pulse which has the same shape and duration as the main pulse. The work also presents a procedure to estimate the characteristic parameters of the second excitation pulse by means of the electrical simulator SPICE. Then, to illustrate the effectiveness of the simulation, the simulated and experimental values are compared through two experimental cases.     

Testing a thermoacoustic sensor of high-power microwave pulses

We present the results of testing a new thermoacoustic sensor designed to detect microwave pulses having durations from 3 to 120 ns at wavelengths of 0.8 and 3 cm. Operation of the sensor is based on the effect of generation of acoustic signals during absorption of microwave pulses in a radiotransparent substrate–absorber–liquid layered structure . A thin nanometer-thick film deposited on a substrate is used as an absorber. Microwaves are converted to an acoustic pulse in the film and the adjacent liquid. The pulse is received by a wideband acoustic receiver and then recorded by a digital oscilloscope. It is shown that for a pulse duration of 120 ns, the shape of the signal recorded by the thermoacoustic sensor completely corresponds to the signal of a tube-diode detector of microwave pulses. The response of the thermoacoustic sensor to shorter pulses (3 and 5 ns long) is a pulse with a duration of 18 ns which is determined by a limited frequency band of the acoustic receiver.     

Maximum a posteriori deconvolution of sparse ultrasonic signals using genetic optimization

Deconvolution of sparse spike sequences has received much attention in the field of seismic exploration. In certain situations in ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) of materials, similar conditions as those found in seismic exploration occur. One example is the problem of detecting disbonds in layered aluminum structures. The reflection sequence convolved with the impulse response of the transducer results in masking closely spaced reflections. Deconvolution of these signals may reveal the reflection sequence and thus make the interpretation easier. In this paper we use the Bernoulli-Gaussian (BG) distribution for modeling the signal generation. This relatively simple model allows maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation of the reflection sequence. A derivation of the MAP criterion is given for clarity. We propose a genetic algorithm for optimizing the MAP criterion. The genetic algorithm approach is motivated by the fact that the criterion is non-convex, implying that the criterion may have more than one local minimum point. The probability of obtaining the global optimal solution is increased by using the proposed genetic algorithm. One of the key features in genetic algorithms, the so-called cross-over operator, has been modified and adapted to the structure of the BG deconvolution problem to improve the efficiency of the search. The algorithm is tested on simulated data using the probability of detection (PD) and probability of false alarm (PFA) as evaluation criteria. The algorithm is also tested on real ultrasonic data from a layered aluminum structure. The results show considerable improvements in the possibility of interpreting the signals.     

Generation and detection of incoherent phonons in picosecond ultrasonics

In picosecond ultrasonics experiments the absorption of a femtosecond laser pulse in a thin metallic transducer is used to generate very short acoustic pulses. These pulses are made of coherent longitudinal waves with a frequency spectrum that can reach 100-200 GHz. The laser pulse absorption gives rise to a heating of the film of a few Kelvin within a typical time of 1 ps. Later on, the heat goes in the substrate through an interface thermal resistance and is diffused by thermal conduction. At very low temperature and in pure crystals the thermal phonons emitted by the heated metallic film can propagate ballistically over large distances and produce a so-called heat pulse. We report on the experimental evidence of the coexistence of the coherent acoustic pulse and the incoherent heat pulse generated and detected by laser ultrasonics.     

Diffraction of sound pulses on an elastic spherical shell submerged in an oceanic waveguide

The paper is devoted to simulating an acoustic field scattered by an elastic spherical shell placed in a waveguide with a fluid attenuating bottom. The emitted signal is a wideband pulse with a Gaussian envelope. The normal wave method is used in the frequency domain for calculating the field of a point source in a free waveguide and the shell scattering coefficients. Movement of the receiver along a vertical straight line located behind the shell makes it possible to obtain a “three-dimensional” image of the field scattered by the shell. In this representation, the horizontal axis is time; the vertical axis is the submersion depth of the receiver; the intensity shows the amplitude of the received signal. Such three-dimensional structures make it possible to analyze the dependence of the complex diffraction structure of the acoustic field on receiver depth. In the considered numerical example, a thin, elastic, spherical shell is located near the attenuating fluid bottom.     

A spatial impulse response based method for determining effective geometrical parameters for spherically focused transducers

This paper proposes a novel method for determining effective geometrical parameters (GPs) of spherically focused transducer. Theoretical basis of the method is the spatial impulse response method (SIRM) that is a powerful tool to calculate transient fields from a piston-like transducer. Experimentally, the method is implemented by measuring arrival times of the pulse signals (either transmission or pulse echo signals) and using them to determine the time intervals between the direct and edge wave pulses. Since the time intervals for a given measurement position depend on the transducer's GPs, then the effective GPs can be obtained. The measurements are carried out in the near-field so that the time intervals can be resolved. The proposed method has been applied to a spherically focused transducer operating in pulse echo mode. The results have shown that the effective GPs used in the SIRM give a closer agreement between the theory and the measurements than the nominal GPs. The method is best suited for characterizing broadband transducers with short pulse excitations. With certain modification it can be also applied to narrowband transducers. The method can be also applied to transducers of other shapes, e.g., planar circle, and planar or curved rectangle provided the piston approximation is appropriate.     

The technique of coherent echo processing in the approximation of a small number of point scatterers

In this paper, we aim at studying the structure of individual samples of coherent echo signals and determining signal features that permit one to detect coherent backscatter and also improve the methods of signal processing. We offer a model of the received signal in the form of a square pulse with duration of the order of the sounding pulse length and filled with a sinusoidal signal of arbitrary frequency. It is shown that this model is quite effective to interpret coherent echo signals in some cases. There are two ways of practical use of the model. One is a technique which singles out the sounding sessions in which strong coherent echo signals are distinguished against the background of other signals received by the Irkutsk incoherent scatter radar. Another is a technique of the spatial resolution improvement.     

低信噪比线性调频信号目标的方位估计

线性调频(LFM)信号目标的方位估计是水声探测研究的重要内容,在进行方位估计时,若存在强干扰信号源与强背景噪声,阵元接收信号的信噪比会显著降低,严重影响LFM信号目标方位估计结果的准确性.针对该问题,提出了一种简明分数阶滤波方法,并将其与常规波束形成方法(CBF)相结合来实现低信噪比条件下LFM信号目标的方位估计.简明分数阶傅里叶变换能在正交角度上将LFM信号的能量聚集在特定频点处并形成明显的能量峰,利用该特性,可对阵列各阵元接收的低信噪比LFM信号在简明分数阶域聚集的能量峰进行最佳滤波,以滤除干扰信息及背景噪声.对滤波输出进行逆简明分数阶傅里叶变换可得到增强信干比和信噪比的阵元域信号,进一步用于目标方位估计,就能获得更加准确的目标方位。数值仿真结果和海试实验数据处理结果验证表明,本文所提出的方法可有效抑制干扰和背景噪声,并对低信噪比LFM信号进行准确、稳健的方位估计。      

Ultrasonic flowmeters: temperature gradients and transducer geometry effects

Ultrasonic flowmeter performance is addressed for the case of cylindrically shaped flowmeters employing two reciprocal ultrasonic transducers A and B so as to measure time-of-flight differences between signals transmitted from transducer A towards B followed by an equivalent signal transmitted from transducer B towards A. In the case where a liquid flows through the flowmeter's measuring section ("spoolpiece"), the arrival times of the two signals differ by an amount related to the flow passing between the two transducers. Firstly, a detailed study of flow measurement errors with mean flow in the laminar flow regime is carried out as a function of the mode index and the transducer diameter/cylinder diameter ratio in the case where no temperature gradients are present in the flowmeter sensor. It is shown that all modes except the fundamental mode overestimate the mean flow by a factor of 33.33% while excitation of the fundamental mode solely give error-free measurements. The immediate consequences are that the flowmeter error decreases as the transducer diameter/cylinder diameter ratio approaches 1 from 0 reflecting the fact that the excitation level of the fundamental mode increases from almost 0 to 1 as this ratio approaches 1 from 0. Secondly, the effect on flowmeter performance due to flow-induced temperature gradients is examined. It is shown that the presence of temperature gradients leads to flowmeter errors at the higher-flow values even in the case where the fundamental mode is the only mode excited. It is also deduced that flowmeter errors in general depend on the distance between transducers A and B whether temperature gradients exist or not. This conclusion is not reflected in the usual definition of flowmeter errors given by the so-called mode-dependent deviation of measurement introduced in earlier works.     

A model of acoustic click production in the dolphin by analogy with a traveling-wave antenna

A model of click production in a dolphin is considered on the basis of analogy with a traveling-wave antenna focused in a given direction. Calculations show that signals deviating from the principal direction of radiation are distorted, so that the forepart of such a pulse is stretched in time while the amplitude of the pulse decreases. A pulse emitted sideways is ahead of the corresponding pulse emitted in the principal direction. A possible mechanism of short pulse production by the sounding organ of the dolphin is considered in terms of the radiation model based on the traveling-wave antenna. The mechanism consists in partial transformations from kinetic energy to elastic and back in the corresponding oscillatory system. A possibility of testing the dolphin for the presence of such a mechanism by a noninvasive experimental technique is pointed out.

     

Time reversal of ultrasound through a phononic crystal

In this Letter, we experimentally investigate time reversal focusing through a phononic crystal consisting of a periodic square arrangement of steel rods in water. An acoustic pulse is transmitted through the medium, received at a transducer array, time reversed and backpropagated. Both spatial focusing and time compression are studied and compared with those obtained through an equivalent disordered medium. With the phononic crystal, we do not observe the "hyperfocusing effect" that is typical of time reversal through disordered samples.     

声透镜对多层样品的光声层析成像

由于光声效应产生光声压分布图像,所以当强散射介质中的模拟吸光组织在受到短脉冲激光照射时,该声压分布会经声透镜成像在像平面上。在像平面上利用线性超声探测器阵列获取光声信号并传递给高速数据采集卡进行数据采集,可由程序重构出光声图像。设计的光声层析成像系统可以采集记录一定深度的数据,成像时只要在所采集到的数据中选取不同列数即可同时获得强散射介质多层样品不同层面的光声图像。实验成功地获得了强散射介质内多层样品不同层面的光声层析图像。该成像方法无需进行复杂的算法重建,且可以同时实现多层样品不同切面的光声成像。