Wavefront distortion in ultrasonic imaging

The influence of wavefront distortion in clinical ultrasonic imaging is examined using a model that represents the received signal as a convolution of the scattering source and the system beam pattern. Assuming the beam pattern can be factored into the product of axial and lateral functions, time jitter with a sinusoidal and a Gaussian distribution is used to show the effect of wavefront distortion on the correlation of the signal across the system aperture. The results illustrate how time jitter couples into beam width to degrade resolution.<>