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Angular scatter offers a new source of tissue contrast and an opportunity for tissue characterization in ultrasound imaging. We have previously described the application of the translating apertures algorithm (TAA) to coherently acquire angular scatter data over a range of scattering angles. While this approach works well at the focus, it suffers from poor depth of field (DOF) due to a finite aperture size. Furthermore, application of the TAA with large focused apertures entails a tradeoff between spatial resolution and scattering angle resolution. While large multielement apertures improve spatial resolution, they encompass many permutations of transmit/receive element pairs. This results in the simultaneous interrogation of multiple scattering angles, limiting angular resolution. We propose a synthetic aperture imaging scheme that achieves both high spatial resolution and high angular resolution. In backscatter acquisition mode, we transmit successively from single transducer elements, while receiving on the same element. Other scattering angles are interrogated by successively transmitting and receiving on different single elements chosen with the appropriate spatial separation between them. Thus any given image is formed using only transmit/receive element pairs at a single separation. This synthetic aperture approach minimizes averaging across scattering angles, and yields excellent angular resolution. Likewise, synthetic aperture methods allow us to build large effective apertures to maintain a high spatial resolution. Synthetic dynamic focusing and dynamic apodization are applied to further improve spatial resolution and DOF. We present simulation results and experimental results obtained using a GE Logiq 700MR system modified to obtain synthetic aperture TAA data. Images of wire targets exhibit high DOF and spatial resolution. We also present a novel approach for combining angular scatter data to effectively reduce grating lobes. With this approach we have been able to push the grating lobes below -50 dB in simulation and effectively eliminate their presence in the experimental wire target images.
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