Ultrasound speckle statistics variations with imaging systems impulse response

The effects of resolution cell size on the speckle statistics below the Rayleigh limit are studied. A three-dimensional simulation phantom that takes into account the 3-D distribution of scatterers and the 3-D nature of resolution cell volume has been used. The medium is modeled as uniform matrix material with discrete scatterers distributed randomly. Envelope detection from the simulated RF signal is carried out by using the Hilbert transform. An analysis of speckle statistics was carried out on the data.<>