Preliminary study of a correlation based phase-aberration correction algorithm for correcting a single-source image through a refractive medium: The female breast

Correlation based phase-aberration correction algorithms self-calibrate the receiving array for the correlated phase errors. However, they are insensitive to severe amplitude errors. A highly refractive medium between a target and the receiving transducer can cause significant amplitude errors due to the phase cancellations of multiple arrivals at the receiving array. The authors experimentally evaluate the tolerance of the single-lag spatial correction algorithm to measured amplitude errors across the receiving aperture when a single source (single transducer element) is imaged through a refractive medium, the female breast. The amplitude RMS is linearly inversely related to the peak image amplitude and linearly directly related to the peak sidelobe after the phase correction