Ultrasound system for acoustic impedance profile reconstruction

An ultrasound measurement system is described that will generate the acoustic impedance profile of a layered medium from the reflection impulse response and with a priori knowledge of the transmitting/receiving transducers and the attenuation of the medium. The theory, the experimental system, and results are presented. The signal processing includes Weiner filtering for the purpose of compensating for the bandlimited response of the transducers, attenuation compensation, detection of the reflection location and amplitude, and the impedance profile reconstruction from the train of reflection impulses. Measurements have been carried out on multilayered phantoms constructed from thin layers. Results are presented for a three-layer phantom.<>