In medical ultrasound imaging using microbubbles (MBs), the nonlinear echoes from the MBs are used for contrast-specific image construction. Techniques such as pulse inversion, amplitude modulation, and the combined method (PIAM) are employed to increase nonlinear components in the echoes. In addition, employment of pulse compression using binary-coded ultrasound can potentially increase the components. In the case of the nonlinear echo, however, a nonlinear sidelobe occurs around the compressed pulse (correlation peak), and nonlinear components for PIAM in the correlation peak are reduced. The shape of the nonlinear sidelobe and the nonlinear-component reduction in the correlation peak can be estimated from the binary codes used. In this study, the optimal binary codes for PIAM are determined from all patterns of 10, 16, and 20 bit Golay codes. Then, the performance of PIAM with pulse compression using each code is evaluated via computer simulations and experiments using the SonoVue MBs.

在使用微泡 (MB) 的医学超声成像中，来自微泡的非线性回波用于构建对比度特定的图像。采用脉冲反演、幅度调制和组合方法 (PIAM) 等技术来增加回波中的非线性分量。此外，使用二进制编码超声进行脉冲压缩可能会增加组件。然而，在非线性回波的情况下，在压缩脉冲（相关峰）周围会出现非线性旁瓣，并且相关峰中 PIAM 的非线性分量会减少。非线性旁瓣的形状和相关峰中非线性分量的减少可以从所使用的二进制代码中估计出来。在本研究中，PIAM 的最佳二进制代码是从 10、16 和 20 位 Golay 代码的所有模式中确定的。