The principle of multidimensional arrays.
Echocardiography is one of the most important diagnostic tools in cardiology today. One-dimensional phased arrays have been used extensively because they have a small footprint and allow beam steering. Their major limitation lies in that these devices can only be used to acquire images of two-dimensional slices in real-time and that the slice thickness cannot be controlled. To allow real-time three-dimensional imaging of the heart and focusing of the ultrasonic beam in two-dimensional, two-dimensional arrays, the design and fabrication of which are enormous engineering challenges, are required. Before reaching this ultimate goal, limited focusing in the elevational plane can be achieved with 1.5-dimensional arrays. Focusing in the elevational plane allows a reduction in slice thickness and thus an improvement in the image quality over a larger depth of view.
Department of Bioengineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA.
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Shung
D004452:Echocardiography; D007089:Image Enhancement; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D014159:Transducers; D014465:Ultrasonics