Retrospective Dynamic Transmit Focusing

Dynamically-focused on receive, real-time array systems exhibit image degradation far from the focal zone of the fixed transmit lens. A retrospective filtering technique reducing the effects of the fixed transmitter is presented. The filter deconvolves the defocused transmit pattern producing a new in-focus transmit/receive image, where the filter coefficients are derived with a least-squares method. Experimental results are presented for a 128 channel array system showing the method's performance. A proposed architecture for real-time filtering is also discussed.