Bandwidth and resolution enhancement through pulse compression

A method for improving the contrast resolution of B-mode images is proposed by combining the speckle-reduction technique of frequency compounding (FC) and the coded excitation and pulse-compression technique called resolution enhancement compression (REC). FC suppresses speckle but at the expense of a reduction in axial resolution. Using REC, the axial resolution and bandwidth of the imaging system was doubled. Therefore, by combining REC with FC (REC-FC), the tradeoff between axial resolution and contrast enhancement was extended significantly. Simulations and experimental measurements were conducted with a single-element transducer (f/2.66) having a center frequency of 2.25 MHz and a -3-dB bandwidth of 50%. Simulations and measurements of hyperechoic (+6 dB) tissue-mimicking targets were imaged. Four FC cases were evaluated: full-, half-, third-, and fourth-width of the true impulse response bandwidth. The image quality metrics used to compare REC-FC to conventional pulsing (CP) and CP-FC were contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), speckle signal-to-noise ratio, histogram pixel intensity, and lesion signal-to-noise ratio. Increases in CNR of 121%, 231%, 302%, and 391% were obtained in experiments when comparing REC-FC for the full-, half-, third-, and fourth-width cases to CP. Furthermore, smaller increases in CNR of 112%, 233%, and 309% were obtained in experiments when comparing CP-FC for the half-, third-, and fourth-width cases to CP. Improved lesion detectability was observed by using REC-FC.

The image quality provided by current ultrasound (US) scanners can be increased by extending the effective bandwidth of the US transducers. In 2007, a promising technique, called Resolution Enhancement Compression (REC), was proposed. Combining chirp modulated signals in emission and Modified Wiener Filters (MTF) in reception, REC allows bandwidth enhancement by boosting the energy of the emitted/received signal in the frequency bands where the transducer operates inefficiently. In this paper the first implementation of REC on a research ultrasound scanner using a Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (CMUT) is presented, the objective being to increase the quality of the images obtained using a Coherent Plane Wave Compounding (CPWC) beamforming technique. The experimental results acquired on wire and cyst phantom indicate a clear increase of the image quality in terms of axial/lateral resolution and signal/contrast to noise ratio. This paper thus proves that REC is capable to yield very good results when implemented on broadband ultrasound transducers.

Optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) can achieve submicron lateral resolution by tightly focusing the excitation light, while the axial resolution is still limited by the frequency bandwidth of the ultrasonic transducer. The Grueneisen relaxation effect, in which the Grueneisen parameter changes within the thermal relaxation time following a laser impulse heating, can provide excellent axial resolution due to its optical sectioning property. Based on this effect, Grueneisen relaxation photoacoustic microscopy (GR-PAM) was developed and demonstrated ex vivo. Here, we present for the first time in vivo imaging of mouse brains with improved axial resolution based on GR-PAM. An intensity-modulated continuous-wave (CW) 532 nm laser thermally heated the in-focus absorber. Another 532 nm pulsed laser, which is aligned confocally with the CW laser, generated the photoacoustic (PA) signal from the absorber. The difference between the amplitudes of the photoacoustic signals with and without heating was used for image reconstruction. The achieved axial resolution is ~12.5 µm, which is fivefold better than the acoustically determined value for a 20 MHz-bandwidth ultrasound transducer. The system was demonstrated by imaging a blood-filled tube ex vivo and blood vessels of mouse brains in vivo. The blood-filled tube diameter obtained from the PA image by GR-PAM is 105 µm, which is much closer to its actual diameter (100 µm) than the value from conventional OR-PAM (160 µm). This axial resolution improvement was further validated in imaging mouse brains in vivo, and yielded significantly narrower axial profiles of the vessels. This in vivo demonstration of imaging by GR-PAM might inspire more applications in PA biomedical imaging and sensing.

We study the use of coherent counterpropagating interfering waves to increase threefold to sevenfold the optical bandwidth and the resolution of fluorescence microscopy along the optic axis. Systematic comparison of the point-spread function and the optical transfer function (OTF) for the standing-wave microscope (SWM), the incoherent illumination interference image interference microscope (I5M), and the 4Pi confocal microscope reveals essential differences among their resolution capabilities. It is shown that the OTF's of these microscopes differ strongly in contiguity and amplitude within the enlarged range of transferred frequencies, and therefore they also differ in their ability to provide data from which interference artifacts can be removed. We demonstrate that for practical aperture angles the production of an interference pattern is insufficient for improving the axial resolution by the expected factor of 3-7. Conditions of the OTF for unambiguous improvement of axial resolution of arbitrary objects are fulfilled not at all in the SWM, partially in the I5M, and fully in the two-photon 4Pi confocal microscope.

Radar system uses Pulse compression techniques to provide the benefits of larger range detection and high range resolution. The transmitted signal undergoes modulation to obtain this and after that matching is carried out with the echo signal (received signal) and transmitted signal. In the past several pulse compression techniques are used, out of which the well known method is linear frequency modulation (LFM). This paper deals with the design to develop and simulate pulse compression and matched filter algorithm in MATLAB to study the LFM pulse compression technique. Matched filter is used as the pulse compression filter which provides high SNR at the output. Matched Filter is mathematically equivalent to convolving the received signal with a conjugated time-reversed version of the reference signal. The main application of pulse compression Radars includes tracking of launch vehicles, abdicable components in space, Missile guidance etc. Here, in this paper we are discussing the pulse compression application in tracking the launch vehicle so as to check whether it had followed the predetermined path or not.

Based on diffraction theory, this paper theoretically demonstrates improvements in axial resolution in confocal microscopy with fan-shaped apertures. It provides the optimal geometric parameters of the fan-shaped pupils to give the maximum axial resolution for a given pinhole size. To fully understand the overall performance, the signal-to-background ratio and the signal level with regard to the geometric parameters are discussed.

For pt.I see ibid., vol.32, no.2, p.153-60 (May 1990). The thumbtack range-velocity resolution function of nonsinusoidal radar signals has been realised with signals having a large number of characters with triangular correlation functions. In reality, a radar signal rarely consists of one pulse; rather, it consists of thousands of pulses structured by various coding techniques. Pulse compression is a technique for obtaining high range resolution with long coded signals. The thumbtack range-velocity resolution function based on the pulse compression principle is realized by coding the transmitted signal using complementary codes. Increasing the code length will increase the pulse compression ratio and the time-sidelobe-free region, Doppler processing of correlation functions based on the pulse compression technique can realize the thumbtack range-velocity resolution function. The range-velocity resolution function is obtained by computer simulation and represented by a three-dimensional surface as a function of target range and velocity for signals with a different number of characters. Plots of range-velocity resolution functions for characters with different code lengths are presented.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Distinct frequency dependencies of the acoustic backscattering by zooplankton of different anatomical groups have been observed in our previous studies [, ICES J. Mar. Sci. 49, 97–106 (1992); Stanton et al., ICES J. Mar. Sci. 51, 505–512 (1994)]. Based mainly on the spectral information, scattering models have been proposed to describe the backscattering mechanisms of different zooplankton groups [, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 236–253 (1998b)]. In this paper, an in-depth study of pulse compression (PC) techniques is presented to characterize the temporal, spectral, and statistical signatures of the acoustic backscattering by zooplankton of different gross anatomical classes. Data collected from various sources are analyzed and the results are consistent with our acoustic models. From compressed pulse (CP) outputs for all three different zooplankton groups, two major arrivals from different parts of the animal body can be identified: a primary and a secondary arrival. (1) Shrimplike animals (Euphausiids and decapod shrimp; near broadside incidence only): the primary one is from the front interface (interface closest to the transducer) of the animal and the secondary arrival is from the back interface; (2) gas-bearing animals (Siphonophores): the primary arrival is from the gas inclusion and the secondary arrival is from the body tissue (“local acoustic center of mass”); and (3) elastic shelled animals (Gastropods): the primary one is from the front interface and the secondary arrival corresponds to the subsonic Lamb wave that circumnavigates the surface of the shell. Statistical analysis of these arrivals is used to successfully infer the size of the individual animals. In conjunction with different aspects of PC techniques explored in this paper, a concept of partial wave target strength (PWTS) is introduced to describe scattering by the different CP highlights. Furthermore, temporal gating of the CP output allows rejection of unwanted signals, improves the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the spectra of selected partial waves of interest, and provides a better understanding of the scattering mechanism of the animals. In addition, it is found that the averaged PWTS can be used to obtain a more quantitative scattering characterization for certain animals such as siphonophores.

Pulsed ultrasonic distance measurement systems are frequently used in robotics applications thanks to their low cost and small size. The pulse compression techniques, originally developed by radar engineers, were adopted to eliminate frequent misreadings caused by crosstalk or external ultrasound sources. However, a few problems become apparent when implementing the pulse compression techniques in robotics applications. First, due to the implementation of correlation functions, the complexity of the total system may significantly increase. Second, if the piezoelectric transducer is excited by a chirp signal, efficiency is reduced due to the narrow bandwidth. In this paper, we present a digital polarity correlator designed for binary coded frequency shift keyed signals which increase the number of different sequences having the same length in a restricted band. The digital signal processing system is integrated into a single programmable logic device. Experimental measurements have been made, and a good agreement with reference data has been obtained with noise added.

Due to the poor conversion efficiency and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT) testing, the defect detection sensitivity is limited, which restricts the extensive industrial applications. A finite element model for the testing process of a meander-coil EMAT was established that considers the simplified excitation and detection circuits for the EMAT. Based on this model, the effect of the connection methods (parallel or series) of the coils in the generating and receiving EMATs on their generating and receiving efficiency was investigated, and the simulation results were validated experimentally. Subsequently, the pulse compression technique with a 13-bit Barker code was used for the EMAT detection, and improvements of the SNR and range resolution were established through numerical simulation and experimental measurement. The results show that compared with the traditional EMAT design, which comprises single-layer transmitting and receiving coils, the conversion efficiency of the optimized EMAT with two excitation and receiving coils in the parallel connection can be improved by 52.8%. With the application of the Barker-coded pulse compression to detect the ultrasonic A-scan signal with no synchronous average, the SNR of the defect echo can be improved by 9.5 dB compared with the A-scan signal with 128 synchronous averages.

Pulse compression is a classical topic. Because of its function in resolution enhancement, pulse compression technology has been applied in many kinds of radar such as pulse Doppler weather radar. In this chapter, a combination of two sidelobe suppression techniques for pulse compression is proposed. Simulation results show that the combination of the two techniques has better pulse compression effect.KeywordsPulse compressionSidelobe suppressionWeather radar

Chirp coded excitation is an effective method to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and penetration depth of high-frequency endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) imaging. In coded excitation, pulse compression is applied to compress the elongated coded signals into a short pulse, which determines the final imaging performance, including spatial resolution and SNR. However, with the current pulse compression methods, it is hard to get high performance in the peak sidelobe level (PSL), image contrast, and axial resolution at the same time. To solve this problem, in this article, a new method named compressed pulse weighting method (CPWM) was proposed based on the combination of two kinds of pulse compression signals. A brief theoretical derivation proved the feasibility of method. The proposed method was evaluated by the simulation and phantom experiments. Compared with traditional method, the results showed that the proposed adaptive weighting method can provide increases of 32.42% in the penetration depth, 9.48 dB in the SNR, 5.60 dB in the contrast ratio (CR), 5.46 in the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and 0.13 mm in the axial imaging resolution for 12-MHz EUS. Therefore, this method can effectively improve the ultrasound penetration depth and imaging quality, which made it have good potential for high-frequency ultrasound imaging.

Electron ptychography is a powerful computational method for atomic-resolution imaging with high contrast for weakly and strongly scattering elements. Modern algorithms coupled with fast and efficient detectors allow imaging specimens with tens of nanometers thicknesses with sub-0.5 Ångstrom lateral resolution. However, the axial resolution in these approaches is currently limited to a few nanometers, limiting their ability to solve novel atomic structures ab initio. Here, we experimentally demonstrate multi-slice ptychographic electron tomography, which allows atomic resolution three-dimensional phase-contrast imaging in a volume surpassing the depth of field limits. We reconstruct tilt-series 4D-STEM measurements of a Co 3 O 4 nanocube, yielding 2 Å axial and 0.7 Å transverse resolution in a reconstructed volume of ( 18.2 nm ) 3 . Our results demonstrate a 13.5-fold improvement in axial resolution compared to multi-slice ptychography while retaining the atomic lateral resolution and the capability to image volumes beyond the depth of field limit. Multi-slice ptychographic electron tomography significantly expands the volume of materials accessible using high-resolution electron microscopy. We discuss further experimental and algorithmic improvements necessary to also resolve single weakly scattering atoms in 3D.

The resolution of standard 3D optical microscopies--both confocal and widefield+deconvolution--is substantially worse in the axial direction than in the lateral plane. This weakness is caused by the fact that the objective lens in a conventional microscopy can only access light emitted within a limited angle of the optical axis. We are developing several new widefield techniques in which light is collected over a larger set of angles by using two separate, opposing objective lenses to observe and/or illuminate the sample from both sides simultaneously. This gives access to substantially more spatial information about the sample than can normally be reached. This information is in the form of relative phase correlations between the two image beams, and thus cannot be accessed by studying either beam alone, but can be detected through the interference of the two image beams if they are combined coherently on a single image detector. The added information allows computational 3D reconstruction to be made with drastically improved axial resolution compared to conventional widefield or confocal microscopies. Experimentally measured transfer functions from our prototype microscope show excellent qualitative agreement with theoretical expectations, and 3D reconstructions of test samples confirm the expected improvement in axial resolution.

Maintaining focus has been a critical but challenging issue in optical microscopy, particularly for microscopic imaging systems currently used in biomedical research. During live cell imaging, environmental temperature fluctuations and other factors contribute to the unavoidable focus drift. For single molecular imaging and super resolution, focus drift can be significant even over short durations. The current commercial and experimental solutions are either optically complicated, expensive, or with limited axial resolution. Here, we present a simple autofocus solution based on low cost solid state laser and imaging sensor. By improving the optical train design and using real-time data analysis, improvement in axial resolution by approximately two orders of magnitudes over the focal depth of microscope objectives can be achieved. This solution has been tested for prolonged live cell imaging for fast ramping up in environmental chamber temperature and large daily swing in room temperature. In addition, this system can be used to spatial-temporally measure the surface for three-dimensional cell culture and tissue engineering, with flexibility that exceeds commercially available systems.