A simple calibration and evaluation phantom for ultrasound scanners

It is argued that performance measuring phantoms containing tissue mimicking material should be considered as a series of combined test features. Each test feature should be capable of yielding quantitative data if desired and the inclusion of a comprehensive set of such features in a single phantom would allow the mutual interdependence of performance parameters to be assessed. These ideas are demonstrated in scans of several phantoms which utilise new features for measuring grey scale performance and relative beam width orthogonal to the scan plane. The relation of this work to research on low contrast detectability of lesions is discussed.