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Quick test of ultrasonic transducer arrays radiating in air using B-mode-images

  • Eike Rosenfeld EMAIL logo , Andreas Kopp , Eckhard Liebscher and Klaus-Vitold Jenderka
Published/Copyright: December 18, 2013

Abstract

This paper describes a statistical procedure working on ultrasound B-mode images that were recorded with the transducer array radiating in air. From the digital image data, a gray value profile was generated using a computer program. A statistical procedure was developed to examine if there are significant deviations from the mean. They occur, for example, when single piezoelements are severely damaged or completely out of function. The entire technique was tested using an ultrasonic imaging system (SonixTouch, Ultrasonix Medical Corporation, Richmond, Canada) in which individual elements or groups of elements can be turned off via firmware. A failure of as large as two out of 128 elements was detectable.


Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. Eike Rosenfeld, Geusaer Str.88, D-06217 Merseburg, Germany, Phone: +0049 3461 46-2186, Fax: +0049 3461 46-2192, E-mail:

The study was funded as part of a research project by the German Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (DEGUM).

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Received: 2013-2-27
Accepted: 2013-11-21
Published Online: 2013-12-18
Published in Print: 2014-02-01

©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston

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