Deep learning for hetero-homo conversion in channel-domain for phase aberration correction in ultrasound imaging

Echo imaging in ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) using the synthetic aperture technique is performed with the assumption that the speed of sound is constant in the system. However, tissue heterogeneity causes a mismatch between the predicted arrival time and the actual arrival time of the echo signal, which will result in phase aberration, leading to the quality degradation of the reconstructed B-mode image. The conventional correction methods that use the correlation of each different channel require the presence of strong point scatterers and involve the problem of local solutions due to excessive correction. In this study, we propose a novel approach to correcting the signal distortion due to sound speed heterogeneity using a deep neural network (DNN). The DNN was trained to convert the distorted radio frequency (RF) inputs for the heterogeneous medium to the distortion-free RF outputs for the homogeneous medium. The network with U-net architecture using ResNet-34 as a backbone was trained using the hetero-homo corresponding channel-domain RF data generated via numerical simulations. The trained network performed phase aberration correction in the channel-domain RF, with the B-mode images reconstructed with the corrected RF demonstrating a higher contrast and an improved resolution compared with uncorrected cases. It was also demonstrated that the DNN model is robust to both varied reflection intensities and varied sound speed heterogeneities. The successful results demonstrated that the proposed DNN-based method is effective for phase aberration correction in US imaging.