Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing (비파괴검사학회지)

The Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing (한국비파괴검사학회)
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Beamforming Technology in Medical Ultrasound System

초음파진단기의 빔포밍 기술

  • Bae, Moo-Ho (Department of Electronics Engineering, Hallym University)
  • 배무호 (한림대학교 전자공학과)
  • Received : 2012.08.29
  • Accepted : 2012.10.12
  • Published : 2012.10.30
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Abstract

Medical ultrasound systems have been used since 1950s, and are now widely used in most hospitals as indispensable diagnostic imaging systems. Since array probe was introduced in 1970s, beamforming technology using electronic signal processing has been adopted to the medical ultrasound system, and has been improved. Beamforming is a important technology which defines the resolution of the ultrasound system. In this paper, the technologies are introduced from basic beamforming principles to current trend. They include principles of beamforming using array probe, basic theory, and practical implementation, and recent topics of synthetic aperture imaging, adaptive beamforming, 2-dimensional beamforming using 2-dimensional array are also introduced. These various technologies will improve system performances continuously by merging innovatively with various technologies in other fields.

초음파진단기는 1950년대부터 사용되기 시작했고 그 동안 꾸준한 기술 발전을 통해 현재 대부분의 병원에서 필수불가결한 영상진단장비로 널리 활용되고 있다. 1970년대 초음파진단기에 어레이 프로브가 사용되기 시작한 이래로 전자적 신호처리를 통한 빔포밍 기술이 초음파진단기에 적용되었고, 꾸준히 개선되어 왔다. 빔포밍 기술은 초음파진단기의 해상도를 결정짓는 중요한 신호처리 기술이다. 이 논문에서는 이 빔포밍 기술의 원리부터 최근 동향까지 간략히 소개하고자 한다. 여기에는 어레이 프로브(array probe)를 사용하는 빔포밍의 원리, 기본적 이론, 실제 구현 등이 포함되고, 또 최근 기술 중 합성구경영상(synthetic aperture imaging: SAI), 적응형 빔포밍(adaptive beamforming), 2차원 어레이 프로브를 사용하는 2차원 빔포밍 기술 등의 주제도 소개한다. 이런 다양한 빔포밍 기술들은 다양한 다른 분야의 기술들과 여러 가지 형태로 발전적으로 융합하면서 시스템의 성능을 지속적으로 향상시켜 갈 것이다.

Keywords

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