Investigation of the feasibility of 3D synthetic aperture imaging

This paper investigates the feasibility of implementing real-time synthetic aperture 3D imaging on the experimental system developed at the Center for fast ultra-sound imaging using a 2D transducer array. The target array is a fully populated 32 /spl times/ 32 3 MHz array with a half wave-length pitch. The elements of the array are grouped in blocks of 16 /spl times/ 8, which can simultaneously be accessed by the 128channels of the scanner. Using 8-to-1 high-voltage analog multiplexors, any group of 16 /spl times/ 8 elements can be accessed. Simulations are done using Field II using parameters from a 32 /spl times/ 32 elements experimental array made by Vermon with a center frequency of 2.93 MHz, fractional bandwidth of 58%, and a pitch of 300 /spl mu/m. The simulations show, that using all of the 128 elements a spherical wave within /spl plusmn/50 degrees sector can be created. The level of the edge waves is reduced by applying apodization with an elliptic footprint. The results of simulations show that the angular resolution at -6dB is 2.7 degrees, and is determined by the distance between the outer-most transmit elements. The peak grating-lobe levels are -23.5, -25, 27.2, -44.5 dB below the main peak for 64, 100, 144, and 169 transmit events, respectively. The number of scanned volumes per second for these cases is 78, 50, 34 and 30, respectively.