Phase aberration correction using near-field signal redundancy. II. Experimental results

For pt.I see ibid., vol.44, no.2, pp.355-71. A phase-aberration correction algorithm using near-field signal redundancy was proposed in part I. Here, this algorithm is tested on data collected from phantoms and volunteers. A linear array transducer was used with a synthetic-aperture scanning system. A wedge of plastic gel was used to introduce phase aberrations when collecting data from a phantom. About 40 sets of RF data were collected from eight volunteers. Results from both phantom and volunteer data have shown that the near-field signal redundancy algorithm can improve image quality by correcting phase aberrations when they are present. The results also show that this algorithm is robust.