Coherent Multi-Transducer Ultrasound Imaging with Microbubble Contrast Agents

A coherent multi-transducer ultrasound imaging system (CoMTUS) enables an extended effective aperture through coherent combination of multiple transducers. The resulting larger effective aperture improves the ultrasound imaging performance. The optimal beamforming parameters, which include the transducer locations and the average speed of sound in the medium, are deduced by maximizing the coherence of the received radio frequency data by cross-correlation. In this technique, the detection of multiple isolated point-like targets in the overlap of the insonated regions is mandatory to determine the relative probe-to-probe position. This study proposes the use of microbubbles to generate the point-like targets that the CoMTUS approach requires. The first phantom images produced using CoMTUS and microbubbles are presented here.