title: Design of optimal 2-D nongrid sparse arrays for medical ultrasound.
abstract: Three-dimensional imaging with 2-D matrix probes is one of the most exciting recent ultrasound innovations. Unfortunately, the number of elements of a 2-D matrix probe is often very high, and reducing this number deteriorates the beam properties. In this paper, we propose a new sparse-array design technique with irregular element positioning, which significantly reduces the number of active elements as well as the grating-lobe level. In particular, we introduce a new cost function for optimizing the weighting coefficients of the elements and a new annealing-based algorithm to compute the lowest cost solutions. Numerical simulations show substantial improvements over standard sparse arrays.
authors.forename: Bakary
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Diarra
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Robini
authors.forename: Piero
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tortoli
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cachard
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liebgott
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*