Impulse response estimation method for ultrasound arrays

Accurate knowledge of the electro-mechanical impulse response for each element in an ultrasound array is important for e.g. model-driven beamforming techniques, coded excitation, etc. Typically, one would use a hydrophone to measure the transmitted pulse of an element excited by a delta-pulse. However, hydrophone setups are expensive, the procedure time is costly, and the measurement is sensitive to the hydrophone position relative to the element. Here we present a procedure to estimate the impulse response for each array element using simple pulse-echo measurements of the elements themselves by means of a new de-autoconvolution algorithm, not involving hydrophones.