Nonlinear radio frequency image simulation for harmonic imaging: Creanuis

The linear propagation of ultrasound in media is an approximation of reality and current ultrasound image simulators do not take into account the nonlinear behaviour of the propagation. This article proposes a new tool, CREANUIS, which associates the nonlinear propagation theory to arbitrary scatterer distributions to create nonlinear radio frequency images. The amplitude distribution of the radio frequency or envelope signal obtained with the new tool follows the expected statistical distribution. The resulting data contains the fundamental but also the second harmonic information and provides realistic images that can be useful for the development of new acoustic imaging techniques.