Parameter optimization of pulse compression in ultrasound imaging systems with coded excitation

A linear array imaging system with coded excitation is considered, where the proposed excitation/compression scheme maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and minimizes sidelobes at the output of the compression filter. A pulse with linear frequency modulation (LFM) is used for coded excitation. The excitation/compression scheme is based on the fast digital mismatched filtering. The parameter optimization of the excitation/compression scheme includes (i) choice of an optimal filtering function for the mismatched filtering; (ii) choice of an optimal window function for tapering of the chirp amplitude; (iii) optimization of a chirp-to-transducer bandwidth ratio; (iv) choice of an appropriate n-bit quantizer. The simulation results show that the excitation/compression scheme can be implemented as a Dolph–Chebyshev filter including amplitude tapering of the chirp with a Lanczos window. An example of such an optimized system is given where the chirp bandwidth is chosen to be 2.5 times the transducer bandwidth and equals 6 MHz: The sidelobes are suppressed to −80 dB, for a central frequency of 4 MHz, and to −94 dB, for a central frequency of 8 MHz. The corresponding improvement of the SNR is 18 and 21 dB, respectively, when compared to a conventional short pulse imaging system. Simulation of B-mode images demonstrates the advantage of coded excitation systems of detecting regions with low contrast.     

数字式超声内窥成像系统(英文)

The development of a novel push-type ultrasonic endoscope is described in which probe rotation is accomplished by a small motor situated near the transducer. A digital FPGA-based ultrasound imaging system is implemented which uses coded excitation to increase the SNR and penetration depth, with probe rotation accomplished by a small motor situated near the transducer replacing the external motor and the long steel wire used in other ultrasonic endoscopes. The apparatus is tested continuously for 300 hours with no obvious problems. The coded excitation, digital quadrature demodulation imaging system can obtain ultrasonic images of higher quality and more information of the echo is preserved compared with the analog imaging system, because the analog digital conversion is moved to the first step of the signal processing.The digital imaging system possesses a higher SNR resulting in a sharp image. Locating the motor near the probe improves the consistency of rotational speed in comparison with external guide-wire rotation, and increases the image quality and life-span of these devices.     

数字式超声内窥成像系统

介绍了一种采用前置微型电机的新型推拉式超声内窥镜的研制方法.在该内镜系统中,采用FPGA实现成像处理功能,运用编码激励技术以提高系统的信噪比和探测深度,使用了微型前置探头取代了目前商用超声内镜中所采用的钢丝连接以驱动换能器进行旋转扫描.该仪器在300 h的连续工作测试中能够正常运行.相较模拟成像系统,数字系统将模数转换置于信号处理的最前端,从而能够保留回声的更多信息.这使得编码激励、数字式正交解调系统获得更高的成像质量.将电机前置于探头附近,能够较外部导线牵引旋转方式获得更大的旋转稳定性、更高的超声图像质量和更长的使用寿命.     

The use of phase codes in ultrasound imaging: SNR gain and bandwidth requirements

Most of the literature on coded excitation describes the signal-to-noise ratio gain of a coded waveform in terms of the time-bandwidth product. We have shown that in the context of ultrasound imaging, the expression for the SNR gain provided by matched filtering a coded waveform, can be reduced to the total number of chips in the transmit signal. Hence, the SNR gain is independent of both the bandwidth and the duration of a single-chip. This concept is described in detail, clarifying this seeming contradiction. The impact of bandwidth and pulse duration on the SNR, SNR gain and axial resolution is described. Bandwidth requirements and the impact of regulatory peak-power limitations are also addressed.     

Investigation of linear and nonlinear frequency modulated excitation effects on tissue harmonic imaging

The generation of tissue harmonics is due to nonlinear nature of ultrasound wave propagation in biological tissues.The tissue harmonics for imaging i.e.tissue harmonic imaging (THI)uses higher frequency components for imaging in which the resolution improves significantly but signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)and penetration depth remains low as compared to both fundamental and second harmonic imaging.The coded excitations have potential to improve the SNR which ultimately leads to improved penetration depth.In the present work,the linear frequency modulated(chirp/LFM)and nonlinear frequency modulated(NLFM)signals have been used to investigate the nonlinear ultrasound wave propagation and harmonic generation in biological tissues.The SNR has been found to be substantially improved for coded tissue harmonic imaging(CTHI)as well as for coded superharmonic imaging(CSHI).     

Comparison of sound fields generated by different coded excitations--experimental results

This work reports the results of measurements of spatial distributions of ultrasound fields obtained from five energizing schemes. Three different codes, namely, chirp signal and two sinusoidal sequences were investigated. The sequences were phase modulated with 13 bits Barker code and 16 bits Golay complementary codes. Moreover, two reference signals generated as two and sixteen cycle sine tone bursts were examined. Planar, 50% (fractional) bandwidth, 15 mm diameter source transducer operating at 2 MHz center frequency was used in all measurements. The experimental data were collected using computerized scanning system and recorded using wideband, PVDF membrane hydrophone (Sonora 804). The measured echoes were compressed, so the complete pressure field in the investigated location before and after compression could be compared. In addition to a priori anticipated increase in the signal to noise ratio (SNR) for the decoded pressure fields, the results indicated differences in the pressure amplitude levels, directivity patterns, and the axial distance at which the maximum pressure amplitude was recorded. It was found that the directivity patterns of non-compressed fields exhibited shapes similar to the patterns characteristic for sinusoidal excitation having relatively long time duration. In contrast, the patterns corresponding to compressed fields resembled those produced by brief, wideband pulses. This was particularly visible in the case of binary sequences. The location of the maximum pressure amplitude measured in the 2 MHz field shifted towards the source by 15 mm and 25 mm for Barker code and Golay code, respectively. The results of this work may be applicable in the development of new coded excitation schemes. They could also be helpful in optimizing the design of imaging transducers employed in ultrasound systems designed for coded excitation. Finally, they could shed additional light on the relationship between the spatial field distribution and achievable image quality and in this way facilitate optimization of the images obtained using coded systems.     

Third harmonic transmit phasing for SNR improvement in tissue harmonic imaging with Golay-encoded excitation

Background

Ultrasound tissue harmonic signal generally provides superior image quality as compared to the linear signal. However, since the generation of the tissue harmonic signal is based on finite amplitude distortion of the propagating waveform, the penetration and the sensitivity in tissue harmonic imaging are markedly limited because of the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

Methods

The method of third harmonic (3f₀) transmit phasing can improve the tissue harmonic SNR by transmitting at both the fundamental (2.25 MHz) and the 3f₀ (6.75 MHz) frequencies to achieve mutual enhancement between the frequency-sum and the frequency-difference components of the second harmonic signal. To further increase the SNR without excessive transmit pressure, coded excitation can be incorporated in 3f₀ transmit phasing to boost the tissue harmonic generation.

Results

Our analyses indicate that the phase-encoded Golay excitation is suitable in 3f₀ transmit phasing due to its superior transmit bandwidth efficiency. The resultant frequency-sum and frequency-difference components of tissue harmonic signal can be simultaneously Golay-encoded for SNR improvement. The increase of the main-lobe signal with the Golay excitation in 3f₀ transmit phasing are consistent between the tissue harmonic measurements and the simulations. B-mode images of the speckle generating phantom also demonstrate the increases of tissue harmonic SNR for about 11 dB without noticeable compression artifacts.

Conclusion

For tissue harmonic imaging in combination with the 3f₀ transmit phasing method, the Golay excitation can provide further SNR improvement. Meanwhile, the axial resolution can be effectively restored by pulse compression while the lateral resolution remains unchanged.     

Influence of the ultrasound transducer bandwidth on selection of the complementary Golay bit code length

In contrast to previously published papers [A. Nowicki, Z. Klimonda, M. Lewandowski, J. Litniewski, P.A. Lewin, I. Trots, Comparison of sound fields generated by different coded excitations – Experimental results, Ultrasonics 44 (1) (2006) 121–129; J. Litniewski, A. Nowicki, Z. Klimonda, M. Lewandowski, Sound fields for coded excitations in water and tissue: experimental approach, Ultrasound Med. Biol. 33 (4) (2007) 601–607], which examined the factors influencing the spatial resolution of coded complementary Golay sequences (CGS), this paper investigates the effect of ultrasound imaging transducer’s fractional bandwidth on the gain of the compressed echo signal for different spectral widths of the CGS. Two different bit lengths were considered, specifically one and two cycles. Three transducers having fractional bandwidth of 25%, 58% and 80% and operating at frequencies 6, 4.4 and 6 MHz, respectively were examined (one of the 6 MHz sources was focused and made of composite material). The experimental results have shown that by increasing the code length, i.e. decreasing the bandwidth, the compressed echo amplitude could be enhanced. The smaller the bandwidth was the larger was the gain; the pulse-echo sensitivity of the echo amplitude increased by 1.88, 1.62 and 1.47, for 25%, 58% and 80% bandwidths, respectively. These results indicate that two cycles bit length excitation is more suitable for use with bandwidth limited commercially available imaging transducers. Further, the time resolution is retained for transducers with two cycles excitation providing the fractional bandwidth is lower than approximately 90%. The results of this work also show that adjusting the code length allows signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) to be enhanced while using limited (less that 80%) bandwidth imaging transducers. Also, for such bandwidth limited transducers two cycles excitation would not decrease the time resolution, obtained with “conventional” spike excitation. Hence, CGS excitation could be successfully implemented with the existing, relatively narrow band imaging transducers without the need to use usually more expensive wideband, composite ones.     

Coded excitation of ultrasonic guided waves in long bone fracture assessment

Ultrasonic guided wave (GW) assessment of long bone fracture have conventionally been based on pulse excitation. However, the high attenuation during propagation diminishes the amplitude of received GWs and results in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The Barker code (BC) excitation and the optimal binary code (OBC) excitation were utilized in this study to overcome this limitation. Both simulations and in vitro experiments were performed on the fractured cortical bone plate model, and measured signals from both the BC and OBC excitations were decoded using the finite impulse response least squares inverse filter (FIR-LSIF) and then compared with sine pulse (SP) excited signals. The results suggest the efficiency of coded excitation for amplitude and SNR improvement. Furthermore, time–frequency representation (TFR) analysis was applied to experimental signals; with increasing fracture depth, energy transformation between predominate GW modes A1 and S2 was confirmed. These results show the potential of using BC and OBC excitations to evaluate the depth of long bone fracture.     

Characterization and analysis of coded excitation ultrasound parameters for rock properties

Coded excitation technology(CET) can effectively enhance the penetration and resolution of ultrasonic testing.To analyze the influence of rock properties on pulse compression performance(PCP) of coded excitation signals(CES),a numerical simulation,and an ultrasonic experiment on different rock samples are performed;and the detection ability of several CESs are also investigated and compared.The results of experiments showed that the loss of the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) of Barker coded signal with tapered linear frequency modulated carrier(BTLFM) is always less than Barker coded signal with sine carrier(BS),while the resolution loss of BTLFM is lower than tapered linear frequency modulated signal(TLFM).In sum,the results not only verifiy the effectiveness of CET,but also provide a basis for the parameter settings of coded signals used in rock ultrasonic testing.     

Reflective terahertz imaging of porcine skin burns

A reflective pulsed terahertz imaging system based on direct detection was developed and used to obtain high-resolution images of a porcine skin specimen with superficial partial-thickness (second-degree) burns. Images were also obtained of the sample through ten layers of dry medical (cotton) gauze with minimal image degradation. The burned and unburned regions of skin had large differences in terahertz reflectivity, displaying clear delineation [20 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) difference signal] between both regions in the images. The terahertz images also exhibited a "halo" surrounding the burn areas that may correlate to the extent of burn injury. The system operated at a center frequency of 500 GHz with 125 GHz of 3 dB bandwidth and used whiskbroom scanning to generate images with a spatial resolution of 1.5 mm. Each pixel was acquired with a 16 ms integration time, resulting in a 40 dB postdetection SNR. The simplicity and high SNR of the reflective terahertz system are promising steps toward real-time terahertz medical imaging.     

Spectral Filtering in OCT System Implemented by Mechanically Induced Long-Period Fiber Grating

A spectral filtering method that can enhance the axial resolution and suppress sidelobes of the point spread function in Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) system is demonstrated. A mechanically induced long-period fiber grating (MLPG) is used to tailor the spectral shape of a homemade Er-doped fiber amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source. By using a MLPG, the high and narrow characteristic peak, centered at 1533 nm, of the ASE source was fairly well removed, which enabled us to use a broader spectral bandwidth of the source. The experimental results show that the proposed spectral filtering method can suppress the sidelobes in the axial point spread function up to 5.4 dB and thus enhance the axial resolution of an OCT system by four times. The OCT images of an extracted human premolar taken with and without the spectral filtering are presented and compared with each other.     

Study on application of complementary Golay code into high frame rate ultrasonic imaging system

The high frame rate (HFR) ultrasonic imaging system, which is developed with limited diffraction beams, constructs images at a high frame rate. However the rectangular imaging area, to some extent, restricts the far field imaging information. At the same time, by virtue of one transmission event for constructing image, the system suffers from low SNR. In this paper we present a computationally efficient method to construct sector mode image and to increase the SNR in HFR system. The method uses orthogonal complementary Golay coded excitation to realize two transmit and receive events. Each emission simultaneously transmits two plane waves with different transmission angle. Then according to Golay code orthogonality, the received echo signals related to different angles are isolated and used to construct two images of different imaging area by HFR method. Finally the two images are synthesized to one frame of sector mode image.     

Improved scatterer size estimation using backscatter coefficient measurements with coded excitation and pulse compression

Scatterer size estimates from ultrasonic backscatter coefficient measurements have been used to differentiate diseased tissue from normal. A low echo signal-to-noise ratio (eSNR) leads to increased bias and variance in scatterer size estimates. One way to improve the eSNR is to use coded excitation (CE). The normalized backscatter coefficient was measured from three tissue-mimicking phantoms by using CE and conventional pulsing (CP) techniques. The three phantoms contained randomly spaced glass beads with median diameters of 30, 45, and 82 mum, respectively. Measurements were made with two weakly focused, single-element transducers (f(0)=5 MHz and f(0)=10 MHz). For CE, a linear frequency modulated chirp with a time bandwidth product of 40 was used and pulse compression was accomplished by the use of a Wiener filter. Preliminary results indicated that improved estimation bias versus penetration depth was obtained by using CE compared to CP. The depth of penetration, where the accuracy of scatterer diameter estimates (absolute divergence <25%) were obtained with the 10 MHz transducer, was increased up to 50% by using CE versus CP techniques. In addition, for a majority of the phantoms, the increase in eSNR from CE resulted in a modest reduction in estimate variance versus depth of penetration.     

Space-time encoding for high frame rate ultrasound imaging

Frame rate in ultrasound imaging can be dramatically increased by using sparse synthetic transmit aperture (STA) beamforming techniques. The two main drawbacks of the method are the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the motion artifacts, that degrade the image quality. In this paper we propose a spatio-temporal encoding for STA imaging based on simultaneous transmission of two quasi-orthogonal tapered linear FM signals. The excitation signals are an up- and a down-chirp with frequency division and a cross-talk of -55 dB. The received signals are first cross-correlated with the appropriate code, then spatially decoded and finally beamformed for each code, yielding two images per emission. The spatial encoding is a Hadamard encoding previously suggested by Chiao et al. [in: Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, 1997, p. 1679]. The Hadamard matrix has half the size of the transmit element groups, due to the orthogonality of the temporal encoded wavefronts. Thus, with this method, the frame rate is doubled compared to previous systems. Another advantage is the utilization of temporal codes which are more robust to attenuation. With the proposed technique it is possible to obtain images dynamically focused in both transmit and receive with only two firings. This reduces the problem of motion artifacts. The method has been tested with extensive simulations using Field II. Resolution and SNR are compared with uncoded STA imaging and conventional phased-array imaging. The range resolution remains the same for coded STA imaging with four emissions and is slightly degraded for STA imaging with two emissions due to the -55 dB cross-talk between the signals. The additional proposed temporal encoding adds more than 15 dB on the SNR gain, yielding a SNR at the same order as in phased-array imaging.     

岩石特性的编码激励超声参数表征及分析

编码激励技术是提高超声穿透能力和分辨率的有效手段。为分析岩石特性对编码信号脉冲压缩性能的影响,通过数值模拟以及不同岩石的超声检测实验,研究并比较了几类编码信号的检测效果。结果表明幅度加权线性调频信号(TLFM)调制的Barker码信号(BTL)受到的信噪比损失低于正弦调制Barker码信号(BS),而分辨率损失要低于TLFM信号。实验结果验证了编码激励技术的有效性,为岩石超声检测中编码参数的设置提供了依据。      

机载海洋激光测深系统参量设计与最大探测深度能力分析

详细讨论了机载海洋激光测深系统最大测量深度与相关因子之间的关系，并利用最小可探测信噪比为判据，对机载海洋激光测深系统在白天和晚上工作进行了数值模拟，通过比较最大测量深度与激光脉冲峰值功率、接收视场角、接收口径和光谱接收带宽等关系，确定了系统的主要参量。以确定的参量建立的系统具有白天49m和晚上65m的最大测深能力，可完全满足在沿岸带以及岛礁的测量要求。     

Optimization of sparse synthetic transmit aperture imaging with coded excitation and frequency division

An effective aperture approach is used for optimization of a sparse synthetic transmit aperture (STA) imaging system with coded excitation and frequency division. A new two-stage algorithm is proposed for optimization of both the positions of the transmit elements and the weights of the receive elements. In order to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in a synthetic aperture system, temporal encoding of the excitation signals is employed. When comparing the excitation by linear frequency modulation (LFM) signals and phase shift key modulation (PSKM) signals, the analysis shows that chirps are better for excitation, since at the output of a compression filter the sidelobes generated are much smaller than those produced by the binary PSKM signals. Here, an implementation of a fast STA imaging is studied by spatial encoding with frequency division of the LFM signals. The proposed system employs a 64-element array with only four active elements used during transmit. The two-dimensional point spread function (PSF) produced by such a sparse STA system is compared to the PSF produced by an equivalent phased array system, using the Field II simulation program. The analysis demonstrates the superiority of the new sparse STA imaging system while using coded excitation and frequency division. Compared to a conventional phased array imaging system, this system acquires images of equivalent quality 60 times faster, when the transmit elements are fired in pairs consecutively and the power level used during transmit is very low. The fastest acquisition time is achieved when all transmit elements are fired simultaneously, which improves detectability, but at the cost of a slight degradation of the axial resolution. In real-time implementation, however, it must be borne in mind that the frame rate of a STA imaging system depends not only on the acquisition time of the data but also on the processing time needed for image reconstruction. Comparing to phased array imaging, a significant increase in the frame rate of a STA imaging system is possible if and only if an equivalent time efficient algorithm is used for image reconstruction.     

Z箍缩中子编码诊断系统模拟平台搭建

开发了基于Geant4的Z箍缩中子编码成像系统模拟平台,实现聚变中子编码成像诊断系统各关键部件的完整模拟。获得了低中子产额（约1010量级）下,中子经编码孔编码后在闪烁体阵列中形成的发光分布图像。利用维纳滤波、Richardson-Lucy（RL）及遗传算法（GA）对低中子产额下获得的极低信噪比图像进行重建,并对信噪比、中子产额及重建效果进行了对比研究,结果表明:遗传算法对低信噪比中子编码图像的重建具有很强的鲁棒性;中子编码图像的信噪比与遗传算法重建结果的准确性呈正比。     

Coded excitation for ultrasound tissue harmonic imaging

Coded excitation can improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in ultrasound tissue harmonic imaging (THI). However, it could suffer from the increased sidelobe artifact caused by incomplete pulse compression due to the spectral overlap between the fundamental and harmonic components of ultrasound signal after nonlinear propagation in tissues. In this paper, three coded tissue harmonic imaging (CTHI) techniques based on bandpass filtering, power modulation and pulse inversion (i.e., CTHI-BF, CTHI-PM, and CTHI-PI) were evaluated by measuring the peak range sidelobe level (PRSL) with varying frequency bandwidths. From simulation and in vitro studies, the CTHI-PI outperforms the CTHI-BF and CTHI-PM methods in terms of the PRSL, e.g., −43.5 dB vs. −24.8 dB and −23.0 dB, respectively.