High-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging System

Abstract

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) usually uses ultrasound with center frequency of 20–60 MHz, which is noted down as high frequency ultrasound (Sun et al. in Ultrasound Med Biol 34(1):31–39, 2008; Silverman et al. in Ophthalmology 114(4):816–822, 2007), ultrasound biomicroscopy (Vogt and Ermert in IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 54(8):1551–1559, 2007; Foster et al. in Ultrasound Med Biol 26(1):1–27, 2000) or micro-ultrasound (Stuart Foster et al. in Interface Focus 1:576–601, 2011; Foster et al. in Ultrasound Med Biol 35(10): 1700–1708, 2009) in ultrasound society. Since the center frequency of ultrasound is higher than traditional ultrasound (2–15 MHz) for high-resolution imaging, the system design is different from the traditional scheme. Separate commercial modules with high performance are usually chosen for research application (Sun et al. in IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 55(8):2039–2049, 2008) regardless of their high cost and large size. It would provide a platform for concept verification due to their fast implementations. But for industry, the system would usually consider the cost and integration. Therefore, the design of the electric system should be easy to manufacture and mass produce.