METHOD FOR CONTROLLING CMUT TRANSDUCERS IN HARMONIC ULTRASOUND, PARTICULARLY IN CONTRAST HARMONIC ULTRASOUND

摘要

The invention relates to a method for multi-pulse control of CMUT ultrsound transducers in harmonic-imaging mode, and in particular with contrast agents. Said method comprises emitting a sequence of three pulses, whose echoes are combined to form an image. According to the invention, said sequence of voltages includes three polarisation voltages with different amplitudes within each sequence. In order to form an image by additive combination of three values measured for said three echoes, each value is multiplied by a predetermined coefficient in accordance with the value of the polarisation voltages. Said combination thus cancels out the linear reflection caused by the transducers. According to one special feature, the three "combined" pulses have different voltages with a factor of one, two and three, respectively. In configurations in "pulse" mode, in which the transducers used for receiving are all controlled with the same polarisation voltage, the echoes received are then combined according to: E1+E3-2*E2.