Recursive reduction of frequency dependent attenuation for wide-band ultrasound imaging in a living body

Ultrasound imaging of a deep part in a living body with high resolution and high SNR is strongly required. The pulse compression technique is efficient for the high SNR, and wide-band imaging is important for the image resolution. Hence, a wide-band transducer is studied vigorously. However, high-frequency components in a wide-band transmission tend to be affected by frequency dependent attenuation (FDA). This lowers not only the SNR but also the image resolution, since the distortion of echo signals makes the exact pulse compression impossible, i.e. the pulse width of the compressed echo signal becomes broad. In this study, we examine compensation for FDA in the pulse compression imaging using FM chirp signals.