Method and apparatus for ultrasonic testing using temporal sparse firing

A method for ultrasonic testing of an object using a phased array ultrasonic probe having a plurality of transducer elements, the method comprising:

• for each position of a plurality of positions of the phased array ultrasonic probe, transmitting an ultrasonic wave into the object using a defined subset of the transducer elements and observing propagation of the ultrasonic wave in the object using receiving elements of the transducer elements to produced raw image data for the position, such that the defined subset changes for adjacent positions of the ultrasonic phased array probe;
• and
• combining the raw image data of each position to produce an ultrasonic image of the object including:
• for each position of the plurality of positions of the ultrasonic phased array probe, blending the raw image data for the position with the raw image data of nearby positions within a defined boundary to generate rendered image data for the position;
• and
• combining the rendered image data of each position to produce the ultrasonic image of the object;
• and
• wherein the blending the raw image data comprises a sliding average operation on the raw image data of the nearby positions within the defined boundary, such that the defined boundary slides in a corresponding manner with the each position of the phased array ultrasonic probe.