Visualization of B-scan transducer transverse cross-sectional beam patterns

A technique has been developed to "fool" a B-scanner into imaging the transverse cross-sectional beam pattern of its transducer. This technique can be easily used by clinical personnel to test in-house transducers under their normal conditions of use. The effects of various equipment parameters on the effective beam pattern and the image spatial resolution are demonstrated. It is shown that the technique may be used easily and accurately to measure transducer connector/acoustic axis misalignment.