Hybrid volume beamforming for 3-D ultrasound imaging using 2-D CMUT arrays

In real-time 3-D (4-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 thousands of elements of 2-D array with the imaging system's front-end electronics. Minimizing the number of transmitting and receiving channels and the firing events without degrading the image quality is one of solutions to reduce the overall system complexity and improve the frame rate. This paper introduces a hybrid volume beam-forming and scanning method for a medical ultrasound imaging system. We also present an efficient volume image-forming architecture using 2-D arrays for miniaturized volumetric ultrasound imaging scanners. To evaluate our works, computer simulations are performed. From the simulation results, we have shown that the presented method provides the comparable image quality to the fully-sampled array (FSA) beam-formation, and is feasible for realtime volumetric ultrasound scanners with miniature devices.