Improving performance of pulse compression in a Doppler ultrasound system using amplitude modulated chirps and Wiener filtering.

摘要

The use of coded excitation and pulse compression in transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound systems is in the very early stages; the optimal processing scheme has yet to be determined. This study uses linear frequency-modulated (FM) chirps with 0.8-MHz bandwidth and compares the use of pulses with and without amplitude modulation and also matched filtering vs. Wiener filtering. The results demonstrate that using amplitude-modulated pulses vastly improves the axial resolution and provides a more predictable mainlobe-to-sidelobe distance in the radiofrequency (RF) signal. It is also shown that a Wiener filter can provide better performance than a matched filter, in terms of axial resolution and sidelobe level in the RF signal and signal-to-noise ratio in conventional sonograms. Although this study uses a TCD system, the techniques described are equally as applicable in other Doppler ultrasound devices.