A new high channels density ultrasound platform for advanced 4D cardiac imaging

A novel ultrasound (US) platform with high channels density is a pre-requisite to open new frontiers in diagnostic and/or therapy by experimental implementation of new enabled advanced techniques. To date, few systems in the world permit to have a full and simultaneous control both in transmit and receive of all single elements of arrays with more than 1000 transducers. This paper presents a powerful US platform for implementing 4D (real-time 3D) advanced US strategies. It includes a 1024-element US prototype designed for 4D cardiac dual-mode US imaging/therapy and a high channels density US scanner, made of 4 synchronized Vantage systems. These systems have per-channel arbitrary waveform transmit/receive generation capability with easy access to RF data. The physical addressing of each US element was properly chosen for allowing various array sparsity combinations while minimizing the number of Vantage driving systems. Numerical simulations of US imaging were performed and experimental data with identical configuration were acquired to compare full and sparse array strategies, testing 4D imaging sequences and reconstruction processes. The validation of different imaging sequences and the technical feasibility of 4D US imaging in realtime was confirmed through confrontations of simulations and true acquisition using this 1024-channels US system, offering full research access for developing advanced US strategies.