Purpose

Because of the small size and high integration of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) component, it can be made into large-scale array, but this lead to high hardware complexity, so the purpose of this paper is to use less elements to achieve better imaging results. In this research, an optimized sparse array is studied, which can suppress the side lobe and reduce the imaging artifacts compared with the equispaced sparse array with the same number of elements.

Design/methodology/approach

Genetic algorithm is used to sparse the CMUT linear array, and Kaiser window apodization is added to reduce imaging artifacts, the beam pattern and peak-to-side lobe ratio are calculated, point targets imaging comparisons are performed. Furthermore, a 256-elements CMUT linear array is used to carry out the imaging experiment of embedded mass and forearm blood vessel, and the imaging results are compared quantitatively.

Findings

Through the imaging comparison of embedded mass and forearm blood vessel, the feasibility of optimized sparse array of CMUT is verified, and the purpose of reducing the hardware complexity is achieved.

Originality/value

This research provides a basis for the large-scale CMUT array to reduce the hardware complexity and the amount of calculation. At present, the CMUT array has been used in medical ultrasound imaging and has huge market potential.

中文翻译：

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电容微加工超声换能器阵列优化稀疏方法研究：启发式算法

目的

由于电容式微机械超声换能器（CMUT）元件体积小、集成度高，可以做成大规模阵列，但这导致硬件复杂度高，所以本文的目的是使用较少的元件来实现更好的成像结果。本研究研究了一种优化的稀疏阵列，与具有相同元素数的等距稀疏阵列相比，该阵列可以抑制旁瓣并减少成像伪影。

设计/方法/方法

采用遗传算法对CMUT线阵进行稀疏处理，加入Kaiser窗切趾减少成像伪影，计算波束图和峰旁瓣比，进行点目标成像对比。此外，采用256元CMUT线阵进行包埋肿块和前臂血管成像实验，并对成像结果进行定量比较。

发现

通过嵌入包块与前臂血管的成像对比，验证了优化CMUT稀疏阵列的可行性，达到降低硬件复杂度的目的。

原创性/价值

该研究为大规模CMUT阵列降低硬件复杂度和计算量提供了依据。目前CMUT阵列已经应用于医学超声成像，市场潜力巨大。