点圆阵的矩阵变换对

针对点圆阵用常规方法不能有效压低旁瓣问题,从点圆阵指向性函数计算公式出发,导出指向性函数和权系数之间关系的点圆阵矩阵变换对,较好地解决了点圆阵指向性综合问题,有效压低点圆阵波束的旁瓣。该方法具有公式直观、使用方便、计算快捷的特点,适用于相控到任意方向和各种形状的波束综合;也适用于由多个同心点圆阵构成的体积阵指向性综合。     

大间距非周期阵列栅瓣抑制研究

为降低工程造价和系统复杂度,采用最小单元间距均大于一个波长的大间距阵列是较有效的措施,但阵列方向图会出现不期望的栅瓣.通过随机分布法对28×28个阵元的大间距非周期矩形栅格阵列进行优化.为抑制栅瓣,将均匀阵列划分为不同数量的子阵列,比较子阵列优化错位后的栅瓣抑制效果.然后,将阵列划分为4×4个和7×7个子阵,研究子阵(错位或均匀)和子阵内阵元(随机或均匀排布)的组合阵列,分析3种不同随机程度的组合阵列栅瓣抑制效果,并结合仿真图从栅瓣电平和平均副瓣电平角度对比说明各种排布的优劣.结果表明,子阵错位且子阵内阵元随机排布的栅瓣抑制效果最好,但平均副瓣电平会抬高,相比全随机排列阵列工程上更容易实现,且成本更低.     

声学基阵波束性能仿真与分析

声学基阵的波束指向性函数具有统一的表达式,运用符号运算的方法,可得到任意阵型声学基阵的波束指向图.论文在仿真计算几类代表性阵型波束图的基础上,以柔性垂直阵为例进一步分析了工程实际中基阵的波束性能.在拉伸作用下和海流作用下基阵波束性能会发生变化,阵元间距与波长比可根据主旁瓣比及栅瓣控制要求进行限制,阵的配重可根据阵弯曲后波束性能的变化进行设计.     

复合声基阵指向性研究

计算并分析了线阵、离散复合阵指向性,连续复合阵不同孔径函数透声窗的指向性以及孔径函数与旁瓣级的关系;并且通过实验验证了复合声学系统对指向性的改善,为实际布阵提供了重要的依据.     

稀疏矢量阵设计的模拟退火算法

对于均匀间隔线列阵,由采样定理可知,当阵元间距超过信号波长的一半时,指向性图会产生与目标等高的栅瓣。为了获得高分辨率,同时避免栅瓣出现,需要大量的传感器。为了减少设备复杂度,可以采用稀疏布阵技术,以较少的阵元获得较高的分辨力。将模拟退火算法应用到稀疏矢量水听器阵的设计中。通过优化阵元位置控制指向性图,可以获得无栅瓣的指向性图。给出了优化后的稀疏矢量阵与均匀间隔矢量阵的指向性图比较。     

水声基阵波束图分析与优化设计软件

介绍西北工业大学开发的水声基阵波束分析与优化设计软件.该软件针对给定的基阵形式,可以设计期望的波束图,然后通过优化方法获得最优的波束形成权系数.同时软件还可以分析水声基阵的常规波束图和最优波束图,并计算波束图的主瓣宽度、旁瓣级、栅瓣位置、指向性指数等主要指标.软件中考虑的基阵形式主要有直线阵、圆阵、圆柱阵、平面阵、球阵、体积阵等.本软件的有效性通过波束优化设计与分析实例得到了验证.     

250KHz多普勒计程仪二维相控基阵设计

将平面基阵的振动基元通过特定的布阵技术分别在二维方向上各构成四个子基阵,并利用两组带中心抽头的变压器移相电路消去各子基阵指向性图中的主瓣和第二栅瓣,形成由第一栅瓣构成的二维±23.58°方位上波束宽度为3°的两对定向发射笔形波束.该声基阵设计新颖、结构紧凑、性能优良、工作可靠.基阵外壳直径仅158mm,特别适合浅海或内河航船上计程仪导航设备应用.     

小型化线列阵研究

介绍了一种小型化线列阵,阵结构与常规线列阵最大的不同在于阵元间距小于四分之一波长。通过理论分析和仿真计算优化了各阵元的最佳权系数,获得了良好的指向性,得到了实验的证明。小型化线列阵的指向性图具有四大特点：①单向性：仅在半空间出现一个轴对称的主波束,无栅瓣和次瓣。②端射特性：主波束出现在线阵的轴射方向。③超指向性：在阵的尺寸远小于二分之一波长条件下不仅可以获得良好的指向性图,并且波束宽度随阵元间距的减小而减小。④恒定束宽特性：在阵元间距小于八分之一波长条件下,波束宽度随频率变化非常平缓。这种小型化基阵也可用于大型基阵如拖曳阵和展开式体积阵的子基阵,进行低频宽带信号的检测。     

250KHz多普勒计程仪二维相控基阵设计

将平面基阵的振动基元通过特定的布阵技术分别在二维方向上各构成四个子基阵,并利用两组带中心抽头的变压器移相电路消去各子基阵指向性图中的主瓣和第二栅瓣,形成由第一栅瓣构成的二维±23.58°方位上波束宽度为3°的两对定向发射笔形波束.该声基阵设计新颖、结构紧凑、性能优良、工作可靠.基阵外壳直径仅158mm,特别适合浅海或内河航船上计程仪导航设备应用.     

宽带水声参量阵指向性设计与实验验证

利用宽带水声参量阵可产生高指向性宽带低频声束,推导了宽带水声参量阵生成低频声束的自解调理论模型,对其换能器指向性进行了分析与设计,并研制出了宽带水声参量阵样机。测试结果表明：该样机产成的2 kHz声束的-3 dB指向性锐角约为2.6°,具有很好的指向性,且旁瓣抑制效果好,能够产生无旁瓣的高指向性低频声束。这为解决浅海水声通信的多途干扰、远程水声保密通信等问题提供了一条新思路。     

Ultrasound therapy transducers with space-filling non-periodic arrays

Ultrasound transducers designed for therapeutic purposes such as tissue ablation, histotripsy, or drug delivery require large apertures for adequate spatial localization while providing sufficient power and steerability without the presence of secondary grating lobes. In addition, it is highly preferred to minimize the total number of channels and to maintain simplicity in electrical matching network design. To this end, we propose array designs that are both space-filling and non-periodic in the placement of the elements. Such array designs can be generated using the mathematical concept of non-periodic or aperiodic tiling (tessellation) and can lead to reduced grating lobes while maintaining full surface area coverage to deliver maximum power. For illustration, we designed two 2-D space-filling therapeutic arrays with 128 elements arranged on a spherical shell. One was based on the two-shape Penrose rhombus tiling, and the other was based on a single rectangular shape arranged non-periodically. The steerability performance of these arrays was studied using acoustic field simulations. For comparison, we also studied two other arrays, one with circular elements distributed randomly, and the other a periodic array with square elements. Results showed that the two space-filling non-periodic arrays were able to steer to treat a volume of 16 x 16 x 20 mm while ensuring that the grating lobes were under -10 dB compared with the main lobe. The rectangular non-periodic array was able to generate two and half times higher power than the random circles array. The rectangular array was then fabricated by patterning the array using laser scribing methods and its steerability performance was validated using hydrophone measurements. This work demonstrates that the concept of space-filling aperiodic/non-periodic tiling can be used to generate therapy arrays that are able to provide higher power for the same total transducer area compared with random arrays while maintaining acceptable grating lobe levels.     

High frame rate imaging with a small number of array elements

Recently, a high frame rate imaging method has been developed to construct either 2-D or 3-D images (about 3750 frames or volumes/s at a depth of about 200 mm in biological soft tissues because only one transmission is needed). The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is high using this method because all array elements are used in transmission and the transmit beams do not diverge. In addition, imaging hardware with the new method can be greatly simplified. Theoretically, the element spacing (distance between the centers of two neighboring elements) of an array should be lambda/2, where lambda is the wavelength, to avoid grating lobes in imaging. This requires an array of a large number of elements, especially, for 3-D imaging in which a 2-D array is needed. In this paper, we study quantitatively the relationship between the quality of images constructed with the new method and the element spacing of array transducers. In the study, two linear arrays were used. One has an aperture of 18.288 mm, elevation dimension of 12.192 mm, a center frequency of 2.25 MHz, and 48 elements (element spacing is 0.381 mm or 0.591 lambda). The other has a dimension of 38.4 mmx10 mm, a center frequency of 2.5 MHz, and 64 elements (0.6 mm or 1.034 lambda element spacing). Effective larger element spacings were obtained by combining signals from adjacent elements. Experiments were performed with both the new and the conventional delay-and-sum methods. Results show that resolution of constructed images is not affected by the reduction of a number of elements, but the contrast of images is decreased dramatically when the element spacing is larger than about 2.365 lambda for objects that are not too close to the transducers. This suggests that an array of about 2.365 lambda spacing can be used with the new method. This may reduce the total number of elements of a fully sampled 128x128 array (0.5 lambda spacing) from 16384 to about 732 considering that the two perpendicular directions of a 2-D array are independent (ignoring the larger element spacing in diagonal directions of 2-D arrays).     

Beam steering with segmented annular arrays

Two-dimensional (2-D) arrays of squared matrix have maximum periodicity in their main directions; consequently, they require half wavelength (lambda/2), interelement spacing to avoid grating lobes. This condition gives rise to well-known problems derived from the huge number of array elements and from their small size. In contrast, 2-D arrays with curvilinear configuration produce lower grating lobes and, therefore, allow the element size to be increased beyond lambda/2. Using larger elements, these arrays have the advantage of reducing the number of elements and of increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this paper, the beamforming properties of segmented annular phased arrays are theoretically analyzed and compared with the equivalent squared matrix array. In the first part, point-like elements are considered in order to facilitate the field analysis with respect to the array structure. Afterward, the effect of the element size on the steered beam properties also is presented. In the examples, it is shown that the segmented annular array has notably lower grating lobes than the equivalent squared matrix array and that it is possible to design segmented annular arrays with interelement distance higher than lambda whose beam characteristics are perfectly valid for volumetric imaging applications.     

Ultrasonic Phased Array Device for Acoustic Imaging in Air

An ultrasonic phased array device is developed to provide mobility aid for visually impaired people. To perform acoustic imaging, two different linear transducer arrays are constructed using commercially available transducers. The transmitter and receiver arrays are formed with six and four transducer elements, respectively. Individual transducer elements are discrete components with a radius of 1.9 wavelengths and a half-power beamwidth of 43$^{circ}$ at 40.8 kHz center frequency. The transmitter array is formed by aligning the transducers with minimum spacing between the elements. Even this placement leads to the occurrence of unwanted grating lobes in the array response and decreases the field-of-view to 30$^{circ}$ . To eliminate these grating lobes, the elements of the receiver array are placed with a different spacing. Forming the receiver and transmitter arrays with nonidentical element spacing makes the grating lobes to appear at different places. Since the response of the overall system is the product of the directivity patterns of receiver and transmitter arrays, the grating lobes diminish for the overall system and the field-of-view increases.      

Ultrasound array transmitter architecture with high timing resolution using embedded phase-locked loops

Coarse time quantization of delay profiles within ultrasound array systems can produce undesirable side lobes in the radiated beam profile. The severity of these side lobes is dependent upon the magnitude of phase quantization error--the deviation from ideal delay profiles to the achievable quantized case. This paper describes a method to improve interchannel delay accuracy without increasing system clock frequency by utilizing embedded phase-locked loop (PLL) components within commercial field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Precise delays are achieved by shifting the relative phases of embedded PLL output clocks in 208-ps steps. The described architecture can achieve the necessary interelement timing resolution required for driving ultrasound arrays up to 50 MHz. The applicability of the proposed method at higher frequencies is demonstrated by extrapolating experimental results obtained using a 5-MHz array transducer. Results indicate an increase in transmit dynamic range (TDR) when using accurate delay profiles generated by the embedded-PLL method described, as opposed to using delay profiles quantized to the system clock.     

Airborne ultrasonic phased arrays using ferroelectrets: a new fabrication approach

In this work, a novel procedure that considerably simplifies the fabrication process of ferroelectret-based multi-element array transducers is proposed and evaluated. Also, the potential of ferroelectrets being used as active material for aircoupled ultrasonic transducer design is demonstrated. The new construction method of multi-element transducers introduces 2 distinctive improvements. First, active ferroelectret material is not discretized into elements, and second, the need of structuring upper and/or lower electrodes in advance of the permanent polarization of the film is removed. The aperture discretization and the mechanical connection are achieved in one step using a through-thickness conductive tape. To validate the procedure, 2 linear array prototypes of 32 elements, with a pitch of 3.43 mm and a wide usable frequency range from 30 to 300 kHz, were built and evaluated using a commercial phased-array system. A low crosstalk among elements, below -30 dB, was measured by interferometry. Likewise, a homogeneous response of the array elements, with a maximum deviation of plusmn1.8 dB, was obtained. Acoustic beam steering measurements were accomplished at different deflection angles using a calibrated microphone. The ultrasonic beam parameters, namely, lateral resolution, side lobe level, grating lobes, and focus depth, were congruent with theory. Acoustic images of a single reflector were obtained using one of the array elements as the receiver. Resulting images are also in accordance with numerical simulation, demonstrating the feasibility of using these arrays in pulse-echo mode. The proposed procedure simplifies the manufacturing of multidimensional arrays with arbitrary shape elements and not uniformly distributed. Furthermore, this concept can be extended to nonflat arrays as long as the transducer substrate conforms to a developable surface.     

Nondiffracting interference patterns generated with programmable spatial light modulators

Nondiffracting beams are of interest for optical metrology applications because the size and shape of the beams do not change as the beams propagate. We have created a generating pattern consisting of a linear combination of two nondiffracting patterns. This pattern forms a nondiffracting interference pattern that appears as a circular array of nondiffracting spots. More complicated multiplexed arrays are also constructed that simultaneously yield two different nondiffracting patterns. We generate these Bessel function arrays with a programmable spatial light modulator. Such arrays would be useful for angular alignment and for optical interconnection applications.     

A study of two-dimensional array transducers for limited diffraction beams

The newly developed limited diffraction beams such as the Bessel beams and X waves have a large depth of field and approximate depth-independent property. They have possible applications in medical imaging, color Doppler imaging, tissue characterization, and nondestructive evaluation of materials, and in other wave related physical branches such as electromagnetics and optics. However, limited diffraction beams are currently produced with an annular array transducer that has to be steered mechanically. In this paper, we study the feasibility of steering these beams with a two-dimensional array, and show that there will be almost no distortion of beams if the effective aperture reduction of the array is properly compensated so that the beams have a constant transverse profile as they are steered. In addition, methods for reducing the complexity of the electronic multiplexing of the array elements are proposed. We also investigate the influences of the interelement distance and the size of array elements on the sidelobes and grating lobes of limited diffraction beams as the beams are steered. They are similar to those previously reported for conventional beams.     

基于反卷积的双线阵聚焦波束形成被动定位方法

为了提高双线阵聚焦波束形成在阵元数少或频率低时的定位精度,文章研究了一种基于反卷积的双线阵聚焦波束形成被动定位方法。首先在测量区内对双线阵接收信号进行球面波补偿,给出噪声源分布的声图信息。然后根据阵型的参数,计算双线阵的指向性函数。最后利用一种适用于移变阵列的二维扩展R-L反卷积算法,对声图波束输出和双线阵的指向性函数做反卷积,求解基于反卷积波束形成的源的分布。该方法旁瓣更低,分辨力更高,有效提高双线阵聚焦波束形成的定位精度和左右舷分辨能力,为后续的减振降噪、噪声检测等工作提供了参考。     

Design aspects of focal beams from high-intensity arrays

As the applications of ultrasonic thermal therapies expand, the design of the high-intensity array must address both the energy delivery of the main beam and the character and relevance of off-target beam energy. We simulate the acoustic field performance of a selected set of circular arrays organized by array format, including flat versus curved arrays, periodic versus random arrays, and center void diameter variations. Performance metrics are based on the -3-dB focal main lobe (FML) positioning range, axial grating lobe (AGL) temperatures, and side lobe levels. Using finite-element analysis, we evaluate the relative heating of the FML and the AGLs. All arrays have a maximum diameter of 100λ, with element count ranging from 64 to 1024 and continuous wave frequency of 1.5 MHz. First, we show that a 50% spherical annulus produces focus beam side lobes which decay as a function of lateral distance at nearly 87% of the exponential rate of a full aperture. Second, for the arrays studied, the efficiency of power delivery over the -3-dB focus positioning range for spherical arrays is at least 2-fold greater than for flat arrays; the 256-element case shows a 5-fold advantage for the spherical array. Third, AGL heating can be significant as the focal target is moved to its distal half-intensity depth from the natural focus. Increasing the element count of a randomized array to 256 elements decreases the AGL-to-FML heating ratio to 0.12 at the distal half-intensity depth. Further increases in element count yield modest improvements. A 49% improvement in the AGL-to-peak heating ratio is predicted by using the Sumanaweera spiral element pattern with randomization.