Techniques for phase correction in coherent ultrasound imaging systems

The problem of phase aberrations modeled as a near field thin phase screen is considered. Here three new techniques for phase aberration correction are presented. In the "central element" correction technique the echo-signal at each array element is aligned with the signal at the central array element. In the "variable speckle look-back" correction technique the signal at each array element is aligned with the sum of signals from all previously corrected elements. In the "variable central speckle look-back" correction technique the signal at each array element is aligned with the sum of signals from the central group of all previously corrected elements. The performance of new techniques for phase aberration correction is tested by means of simulating the point-spread function for both point and speckle targets. The results of simulation show that the new techniques have the better accuracy of phase correction than the classical "neighbor element" technique. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.