Calibration of multiple aperture ultrasound probes
AssigneeMaui Imaging, Inc.
InventorsArtem BELEVICH, Josef R. CALL, Bruce R. RITZI, Nathan W. OSBORN
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Abstract
The quality of ping-based ultrasound imaging is dependent on the accuracy of information describing the precise acoustic position of transmitting and receiving transducer elements. Improving the quality of transducer element position data can substantially improve the quality of ping-based ultrasound images, particularly those obtained using a multiple aperture ultrasound imaging probe, i.e., a probe with a total aperture greater than any anticipated maximum coherent aperture width. Various systems and methods for calibrating element position data for a probe are described.
Claims14
An ultrasound probe calibration system, comprising:
- an ultrasound probe having a plurality of transmit transducer elements and a plurality of receive transducer elements;
- a phantom having a pattern of reflectors;
- a first memory device containing reference data describing the pattern of reflectors of the phantom;
- a second memory device containing transducer element position data describing a position of each transmit transducer element and each receive transducer element relative to a common coordinate system;
- and
- an imaging control system containing calibration program code configured to direct the system to:
- insonify the phantom with the transmit transducer elements, receive echo data with the receive transducer elements, and store echo data in a third memory device,
- form a first image of the pattern of reflectors by beamforming the stored echo data using the transducer element position data,
- determine measurement data describing a position of the pattern of reflectors as indicated by the first image,
- quantify an error between the measurement data and the reference data, and
- iteratively optimize the transducer element position data based on the quantified error.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.