High-resolution and fast 3D ultrasonic imaging technique

The paper considers a 3D ultrasound imaging technique based upon usage of a probe that consists of 2 one-dimensional transmitting phased arrays and 3 receiving phased arrays. By controlling the transmit process on the elements of the transmitting array and simultaneous receiving the signals by all the elements of the receiving arrays, this method yields algorithmically synthesized signals of a 2D phased array, the so called virtual 2D phased array. This allows for achieving short volume scan time and high lateral and axial resolution. Lateral resolution is 2 times better than the Rayleigh limit of the original 1D phased arrays. The paper contains a mathematical simulation and experiment results.