Attenuation and backscatter coefficient measurements from 2 to 60 MHz using backscattered RF signals from a tissue-mimicking phantom

A technique for measuring the attenuation and the absolute magnitude of backscatter in a single-transducer backscatter configuration is tested in a tissue-mimicking gelatin phantom containing two random distributions of spherical glass scatterers (82 /spl mu/m and 4 /spl mu/m mean diameter). Three transducers with different center frequencies and focusing characteristics were used in order to verify that system-dependent effects were removed by the technique and to investigate the change in the measured parameters across a broad range of frequencies (2 to 60 MHz). Comparison of both the magnitude and the dependence on frequency of the experimental results with the calculated backscatter coefficient showed good agreement. Thus, the test demonstrates that the backscatter method employed for the determination of the attenuation and backscatter coefficient is accurate over a broad range of frequencies of interest in medical ultrasound and backscatter acoustic microscopy.