Enhanced ultrasound harmonic imaging using the filtered-delay multiply and sum beamformer

Ultrasound Harmonic Imaging (HI) exploits the second harmonic component of backscattered signals generated by non-linear propagation in tissues. HI provides images with improved resolution and contrast, but with lower signal-to-noise ratio, compared to standard fundamental imaging (FI) mode. The Filtered-Delay Multiply And Sum (F-DMAS) non-linear beamformer (doi: 10.1109/TMI.2014.2371235) was recently demonstrated able to achieve significantly superior contrast resolution and noise rejection than the conventional Delay And Sum (DAS) beamformer. Thus, in this work we experimentally investigate whether the combination of HI with F-DMAS can further suppress beam side lobes and noise to provide an enhanced image quality.