Commercially available cardiac scanners use 64–128 elements phased-array (PA) probes and classical delay-and-sum beamforming to reconstruct a sector B-mode image. For portable and hand-held scanners, which are the fastest growing market, channel count reduction can greatly decrease the total power and cost of devices. The introduction of ultra-fast imaging methods based on plane waves and diverging waves provides new insight into heart’s moving structures and enables the implementation of new myocardial assessment and advanced flow estimation methods, thanks to much higher frame rates. The goal of this study was to show the feasibility of reducing the channel count in the diverging wave synthetic aperture image reconstruction method for phased-arrays. The application of ultra-fast 32-channel subaperture imaging combined with spatial compounding allowed the frame rate of approximately 400 fps for 120 mm visualization to be achieved with image quality obtained on par with the classical 64-channel beamformer. Specifically, it was shown that the proposed method resulted in image quality metrics (lateral resolution, contrast and contrast-to-noise ratio), for a visualization depth not exceeding 50 mm, that were comparable with the classical PA beamforming. For larger visualization depths (80–100 mm) a slight degradation of the above parameters was observed. In conclusion, diverging wave phased-array imaging with reduced number of channels is a promising technology for low-cost, energy efficient hand-held cardiac scanners.

Directional excitation of sound in an aperiodic finite baffle system is analyzed using a method developed earlier in electrostatics. The solution to the corresponding boundary value problem is obtained in the spatial-frequency domain. The acoustic pressure and normal particle velocity distribution in acoustic media can be easily computed by the inverse Fourier transform from their spatial spectra on the baffle plane. The presented method can be used for linear acoustic phased arrays modeling with finite element size and inter-element interactions taken into account. Some illustrative numerical examples presenting the far-field radiation pattern and wave-beam steering are given.

The goal of this article is non-destructive ultrasonic testing of internal castings defects. Our task was to cast several samples with defects like porosity and cavities (where belongs mostly shrinkages) and then pass these samples under ultrasonic testing. The characteristics of ultrasonic control of castings are presented in the theoretical part of this article. Ultrasonic control is a volume non-destructive method that can detect internal defects in controlled materials without damaging the construction. It is one of the most widely used methods of volume non-destructive testing. For experimental control were made several cylindrical samples from ferritic grey and ductile cast iron. Because of the form and dispersion of graphite of grey cast iron it was not possible to make ultrasonic records on this casting with probe we used, so we worked only with ductile cast iron. Ultrasonic records of casting control are shown and described in the experimental part. The evaluation of the measurement results and the reliability of the ultrasonic method in castings control is listed at the end of this article.

The emergence of high-intensity focused ultrasound applications brings great potential to establish noninvasive therapeutic treatment in place of conventional surgery. However, the development of ultrasonic technology also poses challenges to the design and manufacture of high-power ultrasound transducers with sufficient acoustic pressure. Here, the design of a sector vortex Archimedean spiral phased array transducer that is able to enhance focal acoustic pressure is proposed by maximizing the filling factor of the piezoelectric array. The transducer design was experimentally verified by hydrophone measurements and matched well with acoustic simulation studies. The focal deflection was shown to be feasible up to ±9 mm laterally and up to ±20 mm axially, where the effective focal acoustic pressure can be maintained above 50% and the level of the grating lobe below 30%. Furthermore, a homogeneous pressure distribution without secondary focus was observed in the pre-focal region of the transducer. The rational design of a high-intensity focused ultrasound transducer indicates promising development in the treatment of deep tissue thermal ablation for clinical applications.