Evolution of the synthetic aperture imaging method in medical ultrasound system

MooHo Bae

doi:10.7776/ASK.2022.41.5.534

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2022 Vol.41, Issue 5 Preview Page Next Page

Research Article

Evolution of the synthetic aperture imaging method in medical ultrasound system 초음파진단기 합성구경영상법의 진화

30 September 2022. pp. 534-544

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Abstract

Medical ultrasound system has been widely used to visualize the lesion for diagnostics in most medical service site including hospitals and clinics thanks to its advantages such as real time operation, ease of use, safety. Among many signal processing blocks of the system, one of the most important part that governs the image quality is the beamformer, and technologies for this part has been continuously developed in long time. The synthetic aperture imaging method, that is one of the major technologies of beamforming, was introduced to maximize utilizing the information delivered from the patient’s body through the probe, and contributed to breakthrough of the image quality since it was introduced in around 1990’s, and evolved continuously in decades. This paper reviews and surveys the process of development of this technology and expects future evolution.

Keywords

Medical ultrasound system

Beamformer

Synthetic aperture imaging

Artificial intelligence

초음파진단기는 실시간으로 손쉽고 안전하게 환자의 병변을 관찰할 수 있는 등의 다양한 장점으로 인해 병원, 의원 등의 의료현장에서 널리 활용되고 있다. 이 초음파진단기 신호처리 블록 중 하나인 빔포머는 초음파진단기 영상의 화질을 결정하는 부분 중 하나이다. 초음파진단기 기술의 발전과 더불어 이 빔포머와 관련된 기술들도 장기간 많은 발전을 이루어 왔는데, 이 기술들 중 하나의 주요 방법인 합성구경영상법(Synthetic Aperture Imaging method, SAI)은 프로브를 통해 수신한 신호가 운반해 온 환자로부터의 정보를 최대로 활용하기 위한 방법으로, 1990년대 경 최초로 초음파진단기에 도입된 이래 획기적 화질 향상에 기여해 왔고, 수십년동안 다양한 형태의 발전을 거쳐왔다. 이 논문에서는 이러한 진화과정을 살펴보고, 이 기술의 미래의 발전 방향을 예상해 본다.

키워드

초음파진단기

빔포머

합성구경영상법

인공지능

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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 : 41
No :5
Pages :534-544
Received Date : 2022-08-08
Accepted Date : 2022-09-01
DOI :https://doi.org/10.7776/ASK.2022.41.5.534

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of KoreaISSN:1225-4428(Print) 2287-3775(Online)한국음향학회

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