Distributed Phase Aberration Correction Techniques Based on Local Sound Speed Estimates

Phase aberration, reverberation clutter, and off-axis scattering have been identified as major sources of image degradation in medical ultrasound. Near-field and mid-field phase aberration correction techniques make assumptions about the sound speed distribution in the imaging medium that limit their efficacy in the presence of distributed aberrations. Although distributed aberration correction techniques have the potential to perform better, many existing techniques have limited capability in media composed of diffuse scatterers. We propose a distributed phase aberration correction technique, based on local sound speed estimates, that aims to have greater flexibility and improve reconstruction accuracy in media with diffuse scatterers.