SBIR Phase II: Advanced Phased Array Ultrasound Instrument for Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE)

SBIR第二阶段研究项目致力于开发一种先进的超声波束形成器，其可扩展性和信号处理功能无与伦比。超声波波束形成器架构将在其功能的广度上是独一无二的。该架构是作为多个领域的功能超集开发的，包括医学成像、医学治疗、骨密度测量、血管成像和材料表征。这种方法为每个领域提供了一种能够在正常性能范围之外操作的仪器，从而为开发超声的新用途提供了机会。该阵列的优势包括更高的帧速率、更清晰的图像和更精确的手术。当用于医学成像时，材料表征中使用的更高频率将允许在过去只能使用传统的单元件探头的情况下使用阵列换能器，例如用于外科器械的心内成像以及肿瘤消融。通过设计，所提出的架构包含了许多不同领域的能力。然后，每个领域都享有超出通常可用的性能，为研究提供通用工具。

This SBIR Phase II research project strives to develop an Advanced Ultrasonic Beamformer that is unparalleled in its scalability and signal processing features. The ultrasonic beamformer architecture will be unique in its breadth of features. The architecture was developed as the superset of features across several fields including medical imaging, medical therapy, bone density measurement, vascular imaging, and materials characterization. This approach provides each field with an instrument capable of operating outside the normal performance envelope, thereby presenting opportunities for the development of new uses of ultrasound. The benefits of this array include better frame rates, crisper images, and more accurate surgery. The higher frequencies used in materials characterization, when brought to medical imaging, will allow array transducer to be used where only conventional, single element probes could used in the past, for example in intra-cardiac imaging for surgical instruments, and also for tumor ablation. By design, the proposed architecture encompasses the abilities of many different fields. Each field then enjoys performance capabilities beyond what is normally available, providing a general-purpose tool for research.