A Delayed-Excitation Data Acquisition Method for High-Frequency Ultrasound Imaging

作者：Weibao Qiu, Jingjing Xia, Yulong Shi, Peitian Mu, Xingying Wang, Mengdi Gao, Congzhi Wang, Yang Xiao, Ge Yang, Jihong Liu, Lei Sun, Hairong Zheng · 发表于：IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1109/tbme.2017.2687948 · 被引用次数：16 · 研究领域：Ultrasound Imaging and Elastography、Ultrasound and Hyperthermia Applications、Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging

High-frequency ultrasound imaging (at >20 MHz) has gained widespread attention due to its high spatial resolution being useful for basic cardiovascular and cancer research involving small animals. The sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter in a high-frequency ultrasound system usually needs to be higher than 120 MHz in order to satisfy the Nyquist sampling-rate requirement. However, the sampling rate is typically within the range of 40-60 MHz in a traditional ultrasound system, and so we propose a delayed-excitation method for performing high-frequency ultrasound imaging with a traditional data acquisition scheme. In this method, the transmitted pulse is delayed by a certain time period so that the ultrasound echo data are aligned into high-sampling-rate slots. Wire and tissue-mimicking phantoms were imaged to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, whereas a porcine small-intestine specimen and an excised rabbit eyeball were used for in vitro imaging evaluations. The test results demonstrate that the proposed method allows high-frequency ultrasound imaging to be implemented using a traditional ultrasound sampling system.