Phase cancellation and aperture size on broadband ultrasonic attenuation for trabecular bone assessment using a 2-D confocal synthetic array

A scanning ultrasound measurement system was developed for bone assessment using a receiver with an ultra-small aperture size to limit the phase cancellation effects on the physical receiver itself. Results show that phase cancellation does have a significant effect on BUA (e.g., PS nBUA is 8.1% higher than PI nBUA). Receiver aperture size also influences the BUA reading for both PI and PS detection and smaller receiver aperture tends to result in higher BUA readings.