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2025 Vol.44, Issue 1 Preview Page

Research Article

Efficient pulse compression using Barker coded excitation and mismatched filter for portable ultrasound system

휴대용 초음파 시스템을 위한 Barker 코드 부호화 송신 및 미스매치드 필터를 사용한 효율적인 펄스 압축

Myeonghun Han1
,
Changhan Yoon12*
한 명훈1
,
윤 창한12*
1인제대학교 나노융합공학부
2인제대학교 의공학부
*Corresponding Author
31 January 2025. pp. 49-57
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Abstract

To maintain ultrasound image resolution while improving the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), coded excitation and pulse compression are used. Because it can be implemented with a bipolar pulser and maintains the frame rate, Barker code is one of the coding techniques that works well for portable systems. However, pulse compression using a matched filter suffers from high Range SideLobe Level (RSLL). While this issue can be mitigated by using a mismatched filter, the length of the mismatched filter is typically 3-5 times longer than the matched filter, making it unsuitable for resource-constrained portable systems. By applying pulse compression to decimated quadrature signals rather than the Radio Frequency (RF) domain, we present an effective pulse compression in this study that lowers computational complexity. To evaluate the performance, we conducted simulation and phantom experiments. The results show that the proposed method achieved the same -6 dB axial resolution as pulse compression with matched filter. These findings demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce computational complexity while maintaining performance comparable to conventional methods.

Keywords
Ultrasound imaging system
Coded excitation
Pulse compression
Mismatched filter

신호 대 잡음비(Signal-to-Noise Ratio, SNR)를 개선하면서 초음파 영상 해상도를 유지하기 위해 부호화 송신과 펄스 압축이 사용된다. Barker 부호화 송신기법은 바이폴라 펄서로 구현할 수 있으며 프레임 속도를 유지할 수 있기 때문에 휴대용 시스템에 적합한 부호화 기법 중 하나이다. 하지만 매치드 필터를 사용하는 펄스 압축은 높은 범위 부엽 수준(Range SideLobe Level, RSLL)을 초래하는 단점이 있다. 이러한 문제는 미스매치드 필터를 사용하여 완화할 수 있지만, 미스매치드 필터의 길이는 일반적으로 매치드 필터보다 3-5배 길어 자원 제약이 있는 휴대용 시스템에는 적합하지 않다. 본 연구에서는 Radio Frequency(RF) 도메인이 아닌 데시메이트된 직교 신호에 펄스 압축을 적용하여 계산 복잡성을 낮춘 효과적인 펄스 압축을 제안한다. 성능 평가를 위해 시뮬레이션 및 팬텀 실험을 수행했으며, 제안된 방법은 매치드 필터를 이용한 펄스 압축과 동일한 -6 dB 축방행 해상도를 달성하였다. 이러한 결과는 제안된 방법이 기존 방법과 비교하여 성능을 유지하면서도 계산 복잡성을 줄일 수 있음을 보여준다.

키워드
초음파 영상 시스템
코드 부호화 송신
펄스압축
미스매치드 필터
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Information
  • Publisher :The Acoustical Society of Korea
  • Publisher(Ko) :한국음향학회
  • Journal Title :The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
  • Journal Title(Ko) :한국음향학회지
  • Volume : 44
  • No :1
  • Pages :49-57
  • Received Date : 2024-11-09
  • Accepted Date : 2024-12-24
  • DOI :https://doi.org/10.7776/ASK.2025.44.1.049
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