Comparison of different schemes of synthetic transmit aperture using an ultrasound advanced open platform (ULA-OP)

Increasing efforts are currently dedicated to incorporate the Synthetic Transmit Aperture (STA) method in ultrasound imaging systems. The STA technique can provide a pixel-like focusing (dynamic focusing at both transmit and receive) without impairment of the frame rate. This goal can only be achieved by a careful design of the transmission and reception schemes. In this paper, the preliminary results of resolution, Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and Contrast to Noise Ratio (CNR) measurements for a specific SA scheme with different transmit apertures are presented. The measurements were made using a novel ultrasound advanced open platform (ULA-OP) developed at the University of Florence. The ULA-OP is fully programmable and enables access to the RF echo-data from each transducer element.