An ultrasonic array based on row-column addressing ultrasonic array is used for three-dimensional wave number domain imaging

Abstract

The application discloses a kind of based on row-column addressing ultrasonic array's superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging method, based on row-column addressing (RCA) ultrasonic array probe data acquisition, combined with wave number domain image reconstruction, realize superfast three-dimensional ultrasonic volume imaging.This method uses the three-dimensional volume imaging capability and channel number advantage of RCA ultrasonic array probe, and the transmission number of plane wave imaging (PWI) is less, accelerates volume acquisition rate and reduces data volume;Perform wave number domain image reconstruction, utilize the calculation efficiency of fast Fourier transform, can realize the fast reconstruction of three-dimensional volume data, meet the three-dimensional imaging needs of high resolution, high frame rate.This method has significant technical advantages compared with time domain delay-and-sum algorithm, and is expected to be popularized and applied to medical and industrial detection scenarios requiring real-time three-dimensional volume imaging.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of three-dimensional ultrasound imaging, and in particular to a superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing ultrasound array. BACKGROUND

[0002] Three-dimensional ultrasound imaging technology realizes the cross-dimensional breakthrough from planar observation to spatial analysis by acquiring and reconstructing three-dimensional volume data of the internal structure of an object, and has gradually been applied to the fields of medical imaging, industrial detection and the like due to its non-destructive, harmless and non-radiation characteristics. In order to obtain high frame rate volume data while ensuring high-quality reconstruction results, a two-dimensional ultrasound array is usually used for full matrix data acquisition (FMC), but there is also the limitation of a huge amount of data, which is difficult to realize real-time imaging.

[0003] The patent document with publication number CN118831806 proposes a special row-column addressing (RCA) two-dimensional ultrasound array, which reduces the number of active channels from to , while maintaining a large aperture, facilitating wiring and data transmission. At present, the three-dimensional imaging method based on the row-column addressing ultrasound array mostly uses the total focusing method (TFM) or plane wave imaging (PWI) to obtain FMC data, although a high volume acquisition rate is ensured, but the time-domain delay and sum (DAS) algorithm is usually used to process the original signal, which requires a very high computing resource, even if the PWI method with fewer transmission times is used, there will still be spatial pixels, which is difficult to complete three-dimensional reconstruction in a short time. The wave number domain imaging method maps the spatial wave number and frequency components of the original signal to the three-dimensional wave number grid of the target image, and performs fast reconstruction of the original data in the wave number domain, which has obvious advantages in reconstruction speed compared with the time-domain DAS algorithm, while ensuring the quality of image reconstruction.

[0004] At present, the wave number domain reconstruction method based on the row-column addressing ultrasound array has not been reported, and this method is expected to realize real-time three-dimensional volume imaging with multiple channel numbers and high resolution. SUMMARY

[0005] The present application aims at the deficiencies of the prior art, and proposes a superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing ultrasound array.

[0006] The application aims at realizing the following technical scheme: a kind of superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging method based on row-column addressing ultrasonic array, comprising the following steps:

[0007] S1, based on RCA ultrasonic array probe, a set of plane wave deflection angle sequence is combined, and the transmission delay of each element of RCA transmitting array is calculated;

[0008] S2, according to the transmission delay obtained in the S1, the RCA transmitting array is excited, when the plane wave transmission of different deflection angles is collected, the ultrasonic echo signal raw data captured by RCA receiving array;

[0009] S3, Fourier transform is carried out on the ultrasonic echo signal raw data to generate echo time spectrum data

[0010] S4, Fourier transform is carried out on the echo time spectrum data to generate echo space spectrum data;

[0011] S5, Stolt transform is carried out on the echo space spectrum data to generate target image wave number domain data;

[0012] S6, three-dimensional inverse Fourier transform is carried out on the target image wave number domain data to generate three-dimensional target image.

[0013] Further, the S1 specifically comprises:

[0014] The origin of coordinate system is fixed at the center of the bottom surface of RCA ultrasonic array probe, the row elements are arranged along x axis, and the column elements are arranged along y axis, so that the coordinates of row elements and the coordinates of column elements are obtained;

[0015] wherein, is the x axis coordinate of each row element; is the y axis coordinate of each column element; m is the number of row elements, and n is the number of column elements;

[0016] A set of plane wave deflection angle sequences are set, the row element array is selected as RCA transmitting array, and the column element array is selected as RCA receiving array;

[0017] wherein, N is the number of plane wave transmissions required for generating three-dimensional target image;

[0018] The plane wave excited by row element can be deflected in xOz plane, the current plane wave deflection angle is set, the unit normal vector is further calculated, and the transmission delay of each row element is calculated:

[0019] ;

[0020] where c is the sound speed in the target medium.

[0021] Further, the step S2 specifically includes the following contents:

[0022] The RCA ultrasonic array probe is connected to a multi-channel ultrasonic research platform through a radio frequency cable; the multi-channel ultrasonic research platform generates a group of excitation pulse signals according to the transmission delay obtained in the step S1, independently acts on each array element of the RCA transmission array, realizes the transmission of a plane wave with a deflection angle of , and then collects a group of ultrasonic echo signals captured by the RCA receiving array; the ultrasonic echo signal collection under the transmission of a plane wave with all deflection angles included in the deflection angle sequence in the step S1 is completed, and original data is obtained.

[0023] Further, the S3 includes:

[0024] The original data of the ultrasonic echo signal is subjected to fast Fourier transform along the time dimension, and echo time spectrum data is obtained.

[0025] where j is an imaginary unit, t is a sampling time, is an angular frequency of the echo signal.

[0026] Further, the S4 includes:

[0027] The echo time spectrum data is subjected to fast Fourier transform along the receiving array element dimension, and echo spatial spectrum data is obtained.

[0028]

[0029] where is a spatial wave number along the receiving array element direction; before the fast Fourier transform is implemented, the echo time spectrum data is supplemented with 128 0s in the receiving array element direction to improve the quality of the final imaging result.

[0030] Further, the S5 includes: Stolt transform is implemented on the echo spatial spectrum data , and target image wave number domain data

[0031] is obtained.

[0032] where the nonlinear mapping relationship of the Stolt transform is:

[0033]

[0034] wherein, is the ultrasonic wave number; is the spatial wave number along the x direction, is the spatial wave number along the y direction, is the spatial wave number along the z direction.

[0035] Further, the S6 comprises: performing three-dimensional inverse Fourier transform on the target image wave number domain data Performing three-dimensional inverse Fourier transform to generate a three-dimensional target image:

[0036]

[0037] wherein, is the spatial wave number along the x direction, is the spatial wave number along the y direction, is the spatial wave number along the z direction, before performing inverse Fourier transform, a number of 0s are supplemented in each dimension of the wave number domain data to improve the pixel resolution of the final imaging result.

[0038] Further, after obtaining the three-dimensional target image through inverse Fourier transform, another set of target image data can be obtained by exchanging the RCA transmitting array and the RCA receiving array; the two sets of target image data are combined to obtain a final three-dimensional target image, so as to improve the quality of the final imaging result.

[0039] According to another aspect of the specification, an ultrasonic array based on row-column addressing is also provided. The ultrasonic array based on row-column addressing comprises a memory and one or more processors, wherein the memory stores executable code, and the processor executes the executable code to implement the ultrasonic array based on row-column addressing.

[0040] According to another aspect of the specification, a computer readable storage medium is also provided. The computer readable storage medium stores a program, and the program is executed by a processor to implement the ultrasonic array based on row-column addressing.

[0041] The present application has the following advantages:

[0042] (1) Based on the three-dimensional volume imaging capability of the RCA ultrasonic array probe and the channel number advantage compared with the traditional full sampling two-dimensional array, the PWI has fewer transmission times than the TFM, which further accelerates the volume acquisition rate and reduces the data volume while ensuring the imaging quality.

[0043] (2) Perform Stolt transform on the original data in the wavenumber domain and use the computational efficiency of fast Fourier transform to realize the rapid reconstruction of three-dimensional volume data, which meets the requirements of high resolution and high frame rate three-dimensional imaging. Compared with the time domain DAS algorithm, it has significant technical advantages.

[0044] (3) It is expected to be widely applied to medical and industrial non-destructive testing scenarios that require real-time three-dimensional imaging, such as cardiovascular dynamics research, three-dimensional shear wave elastography, high-speed rail inspection, and online three-dimensional inspection of production lines. Attached Figure Description

[0045] Figure 1 A flowchart of an ultrafast three-dimensional wavenumber domain imaging method based on a row and column addressing ultrasound array, provided as an exemplary embodiment;

[0046] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of RCA ultrasound array PWI transmission provided as an exemplary embodiment;

[0047] Figure 3 A comparison diagram of three-dimensional wavenumber domain and time domain imaging results provided for an exemplary embodiment;

[0048] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of an ultrafast three-dimensional wavenumber domain imaging device based on a row and column addressing ultrasonic array, provided as an exemplary embodiment. Detailed Implementation

[0049] To better understand the technical solution of this application, the embodiments of this application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0050] It should be understood that the described embodiments are merely some, not all, of the embodiments in this application. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of this invention without inventive effort are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0051] like Figure 1 As shown, an ultrafast three-dimensional wavenumber domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing (RCA) ultrasound array is provided. This method utilizes data acquisition from a RCA ultrasound array probe, combined with wavenumber domain image reconstruction, to achieve ultrafast three-dimensional ultrasound volume imaging. Specifically, it includes:

[0052] S1. Based on the RCA ultrasonic array probe and combined with a set of plane wave deflection angle sequences, calculate the transmission delay of each element of the RCA transmitting array;

[0053] In this embodiment, the center frequency of the RCA ultrasonic array probe is 5 MHz, the number of array elements is 128+128, the element spacing is 0.25 mm, and the element length is 32 mm.

[0054] The origin of the coordinate system is fixed at the center of the bottom surface of the RCA ultrasonic array probe, the row array elements are arranged along the x axis, and the column array elements are arranged along the y axis, to obtain row array element coordinates , column array element coordinates , and the target detection object is three point scatterers distributed in three-dimensional space.

[0055] wherein, is the x-axis coordinate of each row array element; is the y-axis coordinate of each column array element;

[0056] A set of plane wave deflection angle sequences from to at step size are set; the row (column) array element array is selected as the RCA transmitting (receiving) array.

[0057] The plane wave excited by the row array element can be deflected in the xOz plane, and the current plane wave deflection angle is set, and the unit normal vector is calculated, and the transmission delay of each row array element is calculated:

[0058]

[0059] wherein c is the speed of sound in the target medium.

[0060] In an embodiment, c is the speed of sound in water .

[0061] As shown in Figure 2 , in an embodiment, the transmission delay of each row array element can be calculated by the array element coordinates, the plane wave deflection angle, and the speed of sound in the target medium.

[0062] S2, according to the transmission delay obtained in the S1, excite the RCA transmitting array, and collect the original data of the ultrasonic echo signals captured by the RCA receiving array during the transmission of the plane wave at different deflection angles.

[0063] The RCA ultrasonic array probe is simulated on a 256-channel ultrasonic research platform; the 256-channel ultrasonic research platform generates a set of excitation pulse signals according to the transmission delay obtained in the step S1, independently acts on the 1st to 128th row array elements of the RCA transmitting array, realizes the transmission of the plane wave at a deflection angle of , and then collects a set of ultrasonic echo signals captured by the 1st to 128th column array elements of the RCA receiving array; completes the ultrasonic echo signal collection of the plane wave at all deflection angles included in the plane wave deflection angle sequence in the step S1, and obtains the original data ​The data is stored to a general purpose computer.

[0064] The time sampling rate of the 256-channel ultrasonic research platform is set to The raw data is a three-dimensional data block, three dimensions respectively encode the sampling time (t), the y-axis element position (v) and the plane wave deflection angle (θ), for example, 2816×128×31, indicating that under 31 plane wave deflection angles, each angle has 128 column elements to collect a one-dimensional time signal, and the signal length is 2816 sampling points. That is, the signal amplitude size under a certain sampling point.

[0065] Preferably, the center distance between adjacent elements in the RCA ultrasonic array probe should be no more than half of the typical wavelength in the target medium.

[0066] Preferably, the time sampling rate of the 256-channel ultrasonic research platform should be no less than 4 times the center frequency of the RCA ultrasonic array probe.

[0067] S3, Fourier transform is performed on the ultrasonic echo signal raw data to generate echo time spectrum data;

[0068] The ultrasonic echo signal raw data is subjected to fast Fourier transform along the time dimension to obtain echo time spectrum data:

[0069]

[0070] Wherein, j is the imaginary unit, t is the sampling time, is the angular frequency of the echo signal.

[0071] S4, Fourier transform is performed on the echo time spectrum data to generate echo spatial spectrum data;

[0072] The echo time spectrum data is subjected to fast Fourier transform along the receiving element dimension to obtain echo spatial spectrum data:

[0073]

[0074] Wherein, is the spatial wave number along the receiving element direction.

[0075] Preferably, before the fast Fourier transform is performed, the echo time spectrum data 128 zeros are supplemented in the receiving element direction to improve the quality of the final imaging result.

[0076] S5, performing Stolt transform on the echo spatial spectrum data to generate target image wave number domain data;

[0077] performing Stolt transform on the echo spatial spectrum data performing Stolt transform to obtain the non-linear mapping relationship through a non-linear mapping relationship the non-linear mapping coordinates corresponding to the coordinates performing Stolt transform on the echo spatial spectrum data interpolating the value on the non-linear mapping coordinates to obtain the target image wave number domain data:

[0078]

[0079] wherein the non-linear mapping relationship of Stolt transform is:

[0080] ;

[0081] wherein, is the ultrasonic wave number; is the spatial wave number along the x direction, is the spatial wave number along the y direction, is the spatial wave number along the z direction.

[0082] S6, performing three-dimensional inverse Fourier transform on the target image wave number domain data to generate a three-dimensional target image:

[0083]

[0084] Preferably, before performing inverse Fourier transform, a certain number of 0s are supplemented in each dimension of the wave number domain data to improve the pixel resolution of the final imaging result.

[0085] Preferably, a set of target image data is obtained, then the RCA transmitting array and the RCA receiving array are exchanged to obtain another set of target image data; the two sets of target image data are combined to obtain a final three-dimensional target image to improve the quality of the final imaging result.

[0086] As shown in Figure 3 , in an embodiment, based on the three-dimensional volume data obtained by RCA ultrasonic array plane wave transmission, the data is three-dimensionally reconstructed on a general computer (Intel Core i5-12600KF CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060Ti 16G GPU) using MATLAB R2021b software; the three-dimensional reconstruction results obtained by the wave number domain algorithm and the time domain DAS algorithm are shown in (a) and (b) of Figure 3 , respectively. Figure 3 ​(b) in the above-mentioned two cases, the reconstruction time is 0.31s and 14.07s respectively; therefore, the wave number domain algorithm can not only meet the imaging requirement of high resolution, but also is 45 times faster than the time domain DAS algorithm in reconstruction speed; if the time delay method is considered to calculate the time of the time domain DAS algorithm, the wave number domain algorithm is more than 676 times faster than the time domain DAS algorithm.

[0087] Corresponding to the above-mentioned embodiment of the method for implementing the superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging based on the row-column addressing ultrasonic array, the application further provides an embodiment of a device for implementing the superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging based on the row-column addressing ultrasonic array.

[0088] Referring to Figure 4 , the application provides an embodiment of a device for implementing the superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging based on the row-column addressing ultrasonic array, which comprises a memory and one or more processors, the memory stores executable codes, and the processor executes the executable codes to implement the above-mentioned embodiment of the method for implementing the superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging based on the row-column addressing ultrasonic array.

[0089] The embodiment of the device for implementing the superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging based on the row-column addressing ultrasonic array provided by the application can be applied to any device with data processing capability, which can be a device or apparatus such as a computer. The device embodiment can be realized by software, or by hardware or a combination of software and hardware. Taking the software realization as an example, as a device in logical sense, it is formed by reading the corresponding computer program instructions in the non-volatile memory to the memory for execution by the processor of the device with data processing capability. From the hardware level, as shown in Figure 4 , it is a hardware structure diagram of the device with data processing capability in which the device for implementing the superfast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging based on the row-column addressing ultrasonic array is located, in addition to the processor, the memory, the network interface, and the non-volatile memory shown in Figure 4 , the device with data processing capability in which the device is located usually comprises other hardware according to the actual functions of the device with data processing capability, and details are not described herein.

[0090] The implementation process of the functions and roles of each unit in the above-mentioned device is specifically described in the implementation process of the corresponding steps in the above-mentioned method, and details are not described herein.

[0091] For the apparatus embodiment, since it basically corresponds to the method embodiment, the relevant part is described in the part of the method embodiment. The apparatus embodiment described above is only illustrative, wherein the units described as separate components can or can not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units can or can not be physical units, i.e., can be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the modules can be selected to achieve the purpose of the application scheme according to actual needs. Those skilled in the art can understand and implement it without creative labor.

[0092] The embodiment of the application further provides a computer readable storage medium, which stores a program, and the program is executed by a processor to realize the method for ultrasonic fast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging based on a row-column addressing ultrasonic array.

[0093] The computer readable storage medium can be an internal storage unit of any data processing device, such as a hard disk or a memory. The computer readable storage medium can also be an external storage device of any data processing device, such as a plug-in hard disk, a smart media card (SMC), an SD card, a flash card, etc. Further, the computer readable storage medium can include both an internal storage unit and an external storage device of any data processing device. The computer readable storage medium is used to store the computer program and other programs and data required by the data processing device, and can also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or will be output.

[0094] The application further provides a computer program product, which comprises a computer program, and the computer program is executed by a processor to realize the method for ultrasonic fast three-dimensional wave number domain imaging based on a row-column addressing ultrasonic array.

[0095] Other embodiments of the application will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the application disclosed herein. The specification and examples given are exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the application. The true scope of the application is indicated by the claims.

[0096] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the application, as claimed. The application is not restricted to the exact details shown and described herein and that many variations and modifications can be made thereto, without departing from the scope of the present application. The scope of the present application should only be determined with reference to the appended claims.

Claims

1. An ultrafast three-dimensional wave-number domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing ultrasound array, characterized in that, The method comprises the following steps: S1, based on an RCA ultrasonic array probe, a set of plane wave deflection angle sequences are combined to calculate the transmission delay of each element of the RCA transmission array; S2, according to the transmission delay obtained in S1, the RCA transmission array is excited, and when the plane wave transmission at different deflection angles is performed, the ultrasonic echo signal raw data captured by the RCA receiving array is collected; S3, Fourier transform is performed on the ultrasonic echo signal raw data to generate echo time spectrum data S4, Fourier transform is performed on the echo time spectrum data to generate echo spatial spectrum data; S5, Stolt transform is performed on the echo spatial spectrum data to generate target image wave number domain data; The S5 includes: obtaining echo spatial spectrum data implementing Stolt transform to obtain target image wave number domain data: ； The nonlinear mapping relationship of Stolt transform is: ； wherein, is the speed of sound in the target medium; is the angular frequency of the echo signal, is the spatial wave number along the receiving element direction, is the sequence of plane wave deflection angles, is the spatial wave number along the x-direction, is the spatial wave number along the y-direction, is the spatial wave number along the z-direction; S6, three-dimensional inverse Fourier transform is performed on the target image wave number domain data to generate a three-dimensional target image.

2. The ultrafast three-dimensional wave-number domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing ultrasonic array according to claim 1, characterized in that, The S1 specifically comprises: The origin of the coordinate system is fixed at the center of the bottom surface of the RCA ultrasonic array probe, the row array elements are arranged along the x axis, and the column array elements are arranged along the y axis to obtain row array element coordinates , column array element coordinates ; wherein is the x-axis coordinate of each row element; is the y-axis coordinate of each column element; m is the number of row elements, and n is the number of column elements; Setting a sequence of plane wave deflection angles selected row transducer arrays are used as RCA transmit arrays; selected column transducer arrays are used as RCA receive arrays; Wherein, N is the number of plane wave transmission required for generating a three-dimensional target image; The plane wave excited by the row array element can be deflected in the xOz plane, and the current plane wave deflection angle is set , and the unit normal vector of the plane wave is , and then the transmission delay of each row array element is calculated ； Wherein, c is the sound speed in the target medium.

3. The ultrafast three-dimensional wave-number domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing ultrasonic array according to claim 1, characterized in that, The step S2 specifically comprises the following contents: The RCA ultrasonic array probe is connected to a multi-channel ultrasonic research platform through a radio frequency cable; the multi-channel ultrasonic research platform generates a set of excitation pulse signals according to the transmission delay obtained in the step S1, and independently acts on each element of the RCA transmission array to realize plane wave transmission at angles in the plane wave deflection angle sequence, and then a set of ultrasonic echo signals captured by the RCA receiving array is collected; the ultrasonic echo signals collected under plane wave transmission at all deflection angles included in the plane wave deflection angle sequence are completed, and the raw data including the sampling time, the y-axis coordinates of each row element and the plane wave deflection angle sequence are stored to a general-purpose computer.

4. The ultrafast three-dimensional wave-number domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing ultrasonic array according to claim 1, characterized in that, The S3 comprises: Fast Fourier transform is performed on the ultrasonic echo signal raw data along the time dimension to obtain echo time spectrum data, including the angular frequency of the echo signal, the y-axis coordinates of each column element and the plane wave deflection angle sequence.

5. The ultrafast three-dimensional wave-number domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing ultrasonic array according to claim 1, characterized in that, The S4 comprises: Fast Fourier transform is performed on the echo time spectrum data along the receiving element dimension to obtain echo spatial spectrum data, including the angular frequency of the echo signal, the spatial wave number along the receiving element direction and the plane wave deflection angle sequence; Before performing fast Fourier transform, 128 0s are supplemented to the echo time spectrum data in the receiving element direction to improve the quality of the final imaging result.

6. The ultrafast three-dimensional wave-number domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing ultrasonic array according to claim 1, characterized in that, The S6 comprises: 0s are supplemented to each dimension of the target image wave number domain data, and then three-dimensional inverse Fourier transform is performed to generate a three-dimensional target image, so as to improve the pixel resolution of the final imaging result.

7. The ultrafast three-dimensional wave-number domain imaging method based on a row-column addressing ultrasonic array according to claim 1, characterized in that, After obtaining the three-dimensional target image through inverse Fourier transform, another set of target image data can be obtained by exchanging the RCA transmission array and the RCA receiving array; the two sets of target image data are combined to obtain a final three-dimensional target image, so as to improve the quality of the final imaging result.

8. An ultrafast three-dimensional wavenumber domain imaging device based on a row-column addressing ultrasound array, comprising a memory and one or more processors, wherein the memory stores executable code, characterized in that, When the processor executes the executable code, the method for ultrasonic array based on row-column addressing ultrasonic array is realized, as claimed in any one of claims 1-7.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program, characterized in that, The program is executed by the processor to implement the method of claim 1-7.

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