Pulse elongation and deconvolution filtering for medical ultrasonic imaging

• Published in: IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control ferroelectrics, and frequency control, 1998-01, Vol.45 (1), p.98-113
• Main Authors: Haider, B., Lewin, P.A., Thomenius, K.E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic pulses; Acoustic signal processing; Acoustical measurements and instrumentation; Acoustics; Additive noise; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical imaging; Computer simulation; Deconvolution; Error analysis; Exact sciences and technology; Filtering; Filters; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Interference suppression; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Medical imaging; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous. Technology; Noise level; Physics; Pulse compression methods; Signal filtering and prediction; Signal to noise ratio; Spectrum analysis; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasonic investigative techniques
• ISSN: 0885-3010; 1525-8955
• DOI: 10.1109/58.646915

Range sidelobe artifacts which are associated with pulse compression methods can be reduced with a new method composed of pulse elongation and deconvolution (PED). While pulse compression and PED yield similar signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvements, PED inherently minimizes the range sidelobe artifacts. The deconvolution is implemented as a stabilized inverse filter. With proper selection of the excitation waveform an exact inverse filter can be implemented. The excitation waveform is optimized in a minimum mean square error (MMSE) sense. An analytical expression for the power spectrum of the optimal pulse is presented and several techniques to numerically optimize the excitation pulse are shown. The effects of PED are demonstrated in computer simulations as well as ultrasonic images.