Ultrasparse Ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Focus Imaging by Passive Sensing

Ultrasonic synthetic aperture focus techniques (SAFTs) using less than the total number of available array elements to transmit ("sparse" transmissions) have been recently used in both medical imaging and industrial nondestructive testing (NDT) imaging to increase test speed and simplify multiplexer hardware. The challenge of sparse arrays is to obtain a reasonable image quality given the reduced transmitter-receiver combinations available to the beamforming process. This article proposes a "ultrasparse" SAFT method that employs a minimum number of transmitter elements (from one to four elements only) to obtain an entire full-matrix capture (FMC) set of waveforms. Specifically, a "virtual" FMC is obtained from normalized cross-power spectra between each array element pair in an implementation of "passive" ultrasonic sensing. In order to maintain high image quality without sacrificing imaging speed (e.g., applying a minimal initial time delay and keeping a short time recording window), several key steps have to be taken in this "passive" imaging mode, specifically: 1) the use of carefully designed segment-averaged normalized cross-power spectrum (NCPS) for robust passive reconstruction of the ultrasonic impulse response function (IRF) between two receivers; 2) the use of both the causal and acausal portions of the passively reconstructed IRFs; and 3) the compounding of multiple wave modes in the beamforming process. These steps also ensure the elimination of the near-field blind zone hence potentially enabling near-field imaging. The article first reviews the theory of passive IRF reconstruction between two receivers, comparing time-averaged cross correlation versus segment-averaged NCPS, and then demonstrates the application to ultrasparse SAFT FMC imaging of drilled holes in an aluminum block using a linear transducer array where only one to four elements are used in transmission.