Synthetic aperture technique used in intravascular imaging

Catheter-based ultrasonic intravascular imaging is a very effective method in medical diagnosis and therapy. Because the number of the connections between the array and the control unit is limited, classic beamforming technique cannot get a satisfactory result. The synthetic aperture imaging technique can be applied to solve this problem. The theory of synthetic aperture imaging on a circular track and the characters of the returned waves are discussed in the paper and the imaging procedures are also included