Array processing for hand-held scanners

Multi-element synthetic aperture imaging methods suitable for applications with severe cost and size limitations are explored. Array apertures are synthesized using an active multi-element receive subaperture and a multi-element defocused transmit subaperture. The performance of multi-element methods has been tested and compared to conventional imagers through measurements with a 3.5 MHz, 128-element transducer array on different gel phantoms. The multi-element synthetic aperture methods achieve higher electronic signal to noise ratio and better contrast resolution than conventional synthetic aperture techniques, approaching conventional phased array performance