2D focal-field aberration dependence on time/phase screen position and correlation lengths

Abstract

For high-frequency annular array transducers used in medical ultrasound imaging, aberrations due to tissue and body wall have a significant effect on energy transfer from the main lobe to the sidelobes of the acoustic field: that is, the aberrations make the total sidelobe level increase. This effect makes the ultrasound image poor when imaging heterogeneous organs. This study performs an analysis of the focal-field quality as a function of time/phase screen z position and time/phase screen correlation length. It establishes some rules of thumb which indicate when the focal-field sidelobe energy is at its highest. It also introduces a simple screen-scaling model which is useful as long as the screen position is not closer to the focus than a certain limit distance. The scaling model allows the real screen at a depth z=zscreen to be treated as a scaled screen at the position z=ztransd. 2D sound fields after 3D propagation from the annular arrays to the focal plane have been simulated using an angular spectrum method. The aberrators are represented by amplitude and phase/time screens.