Elevational Synthetic Aperture Focusing for Rotated Array-Based Three-Dimensional Ultrasound Imaging

Three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound (US) imaging is widely used for real-time, non-ionizing, and cost-effective medical diagnostics. However, using a one-dimensional (1D) transducer often results in limited elevational resolution due to the inherent beam thickness. In this paper, we introduce an elevational Synthetic Aperture Focusing (SAF) algorithm specifically designed for rotational 3D US imaging. Unlike previous methods requiring channel data, our approach operates on in-plane beamformed radio-frequency (RF) data, making it more accessible on many commercial scanners. Through simulations and experiments, we demonstrate significant improvements in elevational resolution (up to 96.4%) and contrast (up to 274.7%). These findings highlight the potential of the proposed algorithm to enhance both research and clinical applications of rotational 3D US imaging.