Synthetic Aperture Imaging Methods And Systems

摘要

The invention generally relates to the field of synthetic aperture imaging. In particular, the invention relates to systems and methods for generating synthetic transmit aperture (“STA”) signals and processing synthetic aperture imaging (“SAI”) signals for improved signal-to-noise ratio (“SNR”) and spatial resolution. This generally relates to a method to improve the signal-noise-ratio (SNR) of array signals by both encoding the transmission from multiple array elements with waveform modifications and time delays and encoding the receivers into output channels and decoding the measured signals at the selected output channels to estimate the equivalent received signals of a receiver as if only one transmitting element were fired individually in each transmission event. SAI techniques are subsequently applied to the equivalent SAI signals to obtain improved images.

主权项

1. A system for generating and acquiring image data signals and processing acquired data signals for reconstructing image data, said system comprising:
a plurality of transmitting elements for emitting image detection pulse waves; a plurality of receiving elements; a central control processor, the central control processor controlling transmission process according to a transmission scheme and controlling receiving process according to a receiving scheme, the transmission scheme specifying transmitters of the plurality of transmitting elements that transmit during a transmission event and a waveform modification and a time delay assigned to each of the transmitting elements specified in the transmission scheme, the receiver scheme specifying receivers of the plurality of receiving elements that receive and measure signal data at each of the specified receivers, a plurality of receiving electronics units for connection with the receiving elements to process signal data measured by the receiving elements; a transmitter multiplexer for connecting transmitting elements specified in the transmission scheme with a signal source, a receiver signal combiner and selector for combining specified receiving elements to form output channels and connecting the selected output channels to the receiving electronics units according to the receiver scheme; a signal decoder, said signal decoder being coupled to the receiving electronics units and converting the measured detection signals to equivalent data as if only one transmitter transmits in each transmission event.