Real-time multi-line vector doppler system based on layered array beams

摘要

The last decade has seen an extraordinary evolution of vector Doppler techniques, allowing the investigation of full 2D regions of interest (ROI). In particular, we recently proposed a method (DOI: 10.1109/ULTSYM.2016.7728428), which transmits plane waves (PWs), beamforms 8 parallel lines distributed over the ROI, and estimates the flow speed in real-time by using 16 independent sub-apertures in reception. However, the transmission of PWs inefficiently spreads the energy over a wide ROI, thus reducing the contrast of the investigated Doppler lines. In this work, we propose to improve the performance by transmitting the so called “layered array beams” (LBs), which are limited diffraction beams presenting a comb like pattern for a long range of depths.