Designing of a low-cost, volumetric multi ? Transducer phased array ultrasound system

There is an undisputed need for increased portability and flexibility in diagnostic ultrasound imaging due to the continuously evolving point of care (POC) clinical applications. In order to meet this growing need numerous portable ultrasound systems have been proposed. The design of portable systems is a very challenging task, especially for volumetric imaging system which utilize transducers with hundreds and thousands of elements. This study presents a new low-cost, portable volumetric ultrasound system for ambulatory healthcare monitoring which can serve as an enhanced alternative to the existing portable systems. All hardware components along with vital processes that are performed during the image acquisition, are presented in details. Initially, the design of the proposed 2-D phased array transducer is introduced and its performance is evaluated. Secondly, all hardware components of the system are explicitly presented and finally a software-based methodology for image enhancement that is based in image fusion and a super - resolution technique is described. The imaging quality of the designed transducer is investigated through simulations using FIELD II. Additionally, preliminary simulation results of the applied methodology for 3D images, show significant image quality improvement, especially in the regions where recording from all transducers was possible.