Hybrid beamformation for volumetric ultrasound imaging scanners using 2-D array transducers

In real-time 3-D ultrasound imaging using 2-D array transducers, manipulating massive ultrasound data acquired from a large number of system channels is a challenge as is interconnecting hundreds or thousands of elements of 2-D array with the imaging system's front-end electronics. Minimizing the number of transmitting and receiving elements and the firing events without degrading the spatial resolution is one of the solutions to reduce the overall system complexity and improve the frame rate. This paper introduces a new hybrid beamformation method for a medical image system. We also present an efficient 2-D array scanning method for miniaturized volumetric ultrasound imaging scanners. To evaluate our works, computer simulations are performed. From the simulation results, we have shown that the proposed hybrid beamforming method can provide comparable image quality to fully-sampled array beamformation, and the proposed method may be feasible for miniaturized real-time volumetric ultrasound scanners.