Improved Focusing Method for 3-D Imaging using Row-Column-Addressed 2-D Arrays

A row-column-addressed (RCA) 2-D array can be interpreted as two orthogonal 1-D arrays. By transmitting with row elements and receiving the echoes through column elements or vice versa, a rectilinear volume in front of the array can be beamformed. Since the transmit and receive 1-D arrays are orthogonal to each other, only one-way focusing is possible in each transmit or receive plane. For applications, where the scatterers are sparse, e.g., in micro-bubble tracking, this study suggests to multiply the envelope data received by the row elements when transmitting with columns as well as the data received by the column elements when transmitting with rows, to improve the focusing. In this way, at each point a two-way focused profile in both transmit and receive directions can be produced. This paper investigates the performance of the new focusing scheme based on simulations and phantom measurements with a PZT lambda/2-pitch 3MHz 62+62 RCA 2-D transducer probe. A synthetic aperture imaging sequence with single element transmissions at a time, is designed for imaging down to 14 cm at a volume rate of 44 Hz.