Impulse response-based actuation of ultrasound transducer for enhanced axial resolution in A-mode ultrasound scanner

This work proposes a novel method for adaptively acquiring the impulse response of an ultrasound scanner and using it to drive the transducer, thereby optimizing the pulse-echo response. Specifically, this work introduces a new technique for obtaining the equivalent impulse response of the entire system, including the ultrasound transmitter (TX) circuit, transducer, medium, and receiver (RX) circuit. Compared to conventional transducer actuation using pulse waves or sine waves, the proposed method achieves efficient acoustic energy transmission and reception by fully utilizing the system bandwidth through impulse response-based transducer re-actuation. The proposed impulse response acquisition algorithm and transducer actuation method were implemented on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) device and validated using an A-mode ultrasound scanner circuit. Experimental results demonstrated that, under the same TX power condition, the axial resolution of the pulse-echo response was improved by at least 1.42 times compared to conventional pulse sine-wave, bipolar, and unipolar actuation methods. Adaptive system-wide impulse response acquisition and activation of ultrasonic transducer with the acquired impulse response for enhanced axial resolution in a real-time ultrasound scanner. • A novel method for adaptively utilizing the system-wide impulse response of an ultrasound scanner to optimize pulse-echo performance.