Experimental demonstration of the coherent use of two sparse arrays for 3-D imaging

Coherent multi-transducer ultrasound (CoMTUS) creates an extended effective aperture through the coherent combination of multiple arrays. In this study, for the first time, CoMTUS is experimentally implemented and demonstrated in 3-D using two synchronized ULA-OP 256 systems controlling a pair of 2-D sparse arrays. Results show that, in comparison to a single dense spiral array system using the same total number of active elements, the proposed CoMTUS system formed by two 2-D 256-element sparse spiral arrays leads to significant improvements in spatial resolution, in the direction where both arrays are aligned, and higher contrast-to-noise-ratio and generalized contrast-to-noise-ratio.