TY - GEN
T1 - The new efficient multi-beamforming method based on multiple-access register block on a post-fractional filtering architecture
AU - Kang, Jeeun
AU - Kim, Giduck
AU - Yoon, Changhan
AU - Yoo, Yangmo
AU - Song, Tai Kyong
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - In medical ultrasound imaging, a multi-beamforming (MBF) method is used for supporting high frame rate imaging or functional imaging where multiple scanlines are reconstructed from a single excitation event. For efficient MBF, a time-sharing technique (i.e., MBF-TS) can be applied. However, the MBF-TS could degrade image quality due to the decreased beamforming frequency. In this paper, the multi-access register-based MBF (MBF-MAR) method running on the post-fractional filtering (PFF) architecture is presented. In PFF-MBF-MAR, instead of lowering beamforming frequency, a multi-access register at each channel is utilized for generating multiple scanlines simultaneously. To evaluate the performance of the proposed PFF-MBF-MAR method, the phantom experiment was conducted where 64- channel pre-beamformed radio-frequency (RF) data were captured from a tissue mimicking phantom by using a modified commercial ultrasound system (SONOLINE G40, Siemens Inc., USA) using a 3-MHz phased array probe. From the phantom experiment, the PFF-MBF-MAR method showed 4.7 dB and 0.6 improvements in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), respectively, compared to the PFF-MBF-TS method, while slightly increasing the hardware complexity (<5.2%). The similar results were achieved with the in vivo thyroid data. These results indicate that the proposed PFF-MBF-MAR method can be used for high frame rate imaging or functional imaging without sacrificing image quality while slightly increasing the hardware complexity.
AB - In medical ultrasound imaging, a multi-beamforming (MBF) method is used for supporting high frame rate imaging or functional imaging where multiple scanlines are reconstructed from a single excitation event. For efficient MBF, a time-sharing technique (i.e., MBF-TS) can be applied. However, the MBF-TS could degrade image quality due to the decreased beamforming frequency. In this paper, the multi-access register-based MBF (MBF-MAR) method running on the post-fractional filtering (PFF) architecture is presented. In PFF-MBF-MAR, instead of lowering beamforming frequency, a multi-access register at each channel is utilized for generating multiple scanlines simultaneously. To evaluate the performance of the proposed PFF-MBF-MAR method, the phantom experiment was conducted where 64- channel pre-beamformed radio-frequency (RF) data were captured from a tissue mimicking phantom by using a modified commercial ultrasound system (SONOLINE G40, Siemens Inc., USA) using a 3-MHz phased array probe. From the phantom experiment, the PFF-MBF-MAR method showed 4.7 dB and 0.6 improvements in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), respectively, compared to the PFF-MBF-TS method, while slightly increasing the hardware complexity (<5.2%). The similar results were achieved with the in vivo thyroid data. These results indicate that the proposed PFF-MBF-MAR method can be used for high frame rate imaging or functional imaging without sacrificing image quality while slightly increasing the hardware complexity.
KW - high frame rate imaging
KW - medical ultrasound imaging
KW - multi-beamforming
KW - post-fractional filtering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79957949874&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79957949874&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1117/12.878865
DO - 10.1117/12.878865
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:79957949874
SN - 9780819485106
T3 - Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
BT - Medical Imaging 2011
T2 - Medical Imaging 2011: Ultrasonic Imaging, Tomography, and Therapy
Y2 - 13 February 2011 through 14 February 2011
ER -