A novel method for separating harmonic from ultrasonic echo signals using improved complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise algorithm

The performance of tissue imaging is improved by tissue harmonic imaging (THI) to expand and enhance the range and level of clinical diagnosis for many diseases. The separation based on High-pass filtering (S_HPF) is a commonly used method for extracting harmonic components from ultrasonic echo signals. However, the cut-off frequency, order and algorithm to realize a high-pass filter have a great influence on the separation accuracy of harmonic signals. In present study, a novel separation method (S_CEEMDAN) based on the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) algorithm is proposed for adaptively separating harmonic components from ultrasonic echo signals. First, we calculate the ensemble size of CEEMDAN adaptively based on the added noise level, and draw a sum of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) from the ultrasonic echo signals by CEEMDAN. Then, the spectrum of each IMF is computed and evaluated, and the IMFs containing both fundamental and harmonic components are further decomposed by using the CEEMDAN algorithm. This separation process is end until all of IMFs have been divided into either fundamental or harmonic categories. Finally, the corresponding fundamental and harmonic echo signals are yielded by accumulating separately these two categories. In experiments, simulated ultrasonic echo signals with a center frequency of 3.5MHz are separated by the proposed S_CEEMDAN method, and the results are compared with those processed by S_HPF. The edge of the harmonic image by S_CEEMDAN marginally better defined than S_HPF. The indices for the harmonic signals separated by S_CEEMDAN and S_HPF, respectively, are as follows: the center frequencies of 6.66 MHz and 6.65 MHz, 3 dB bandwidths of 1.04 MHz and 1.05 MHz, 6 dB bandwidths of 1.59 MHz and 1.55 MHz, signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of 14.00 and 13.63, and image contrasts of 7.01 and 7.06. In conclusion, due to good adaptive characteristics, and lower reconstruction errors, the proposed S_CEEMD method is superior to S_HPF in the performance of spectral accuracy and harmonic imaging. This method could be potentially alternative to the current method for the ultrasonic harmonic separation.