Adaptive ultrasound imaging systems using large, two-dimensional, conformal arrays

Very large, two-dimensional, conformal arrays have been proposed to improve ultrasound´s ability to detect cancer. These arrays are undersampled in elevation to reduce total channel number while maintaining full three-dimensional focusing capability. Due to limited acoustic windows into the body, however, a fraction of the aperture might be blocked and produce undesired imaging artifacts. In addition, tissue inhomogeneities and array conformality result in time-of-flight errors and further degrade beam quality. To fully realize the clinical potential of ultrasound imaging, these artifacts must be removed. In this paper, we present recent progress on the applications of advanced signal processing techniques to both blocked element compensation and phase aberration correction problems. With the success of these techniques, it was shown that large, two-dimensional, anisotropic, conformal arrays hold the promise to greatly improve ultrasound image quality