The availability of a non-invasive express method for the in vivo measurement of both sound velocity and thickness of the human skull bone would be of great benefit to various transcranial ultrasonic imaging and treatment applications. This paper investigates two ultrasonic methods that measure both parameters and are based on the variable focus technique. All the experiments described in this paper were conducted on specially prepared custom skull bone phantoms, including flat and deformed samples, designed and developed in our laboratory. The first method uses a single immersion 2.25 MHz ultrasonic transducer consecutively focused on the front and back surfaces of the sample. The accuracy and precision of this method are demonstrated via single point measurements on flat samples with and without porosity. The measurement results from a specimen with the randomly curved back surface show the possibility of obtaining the inner profile of the skull bone. The second presented method is a practical modification of the variable focus technique for the linear phased array case. The method was tested on flat and curved skull bone phantoms with and without inner porosity showing higher measurement accuracy and simpler practical realization than its scanning counterpart.

In the various stages of developing diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, the use of phantoms can play a very important role in improving the process, help in implementation, testing and calibrations. Phantoms are especially useful in developing new applications and training new doctors in medical schools. However, devices that use different physical factors, such as MRI, Ultrasound, CT Scan, etc will require the phantom to be made of different physical properties. In this paper we introduce the properties of recently designed new materials for developing phantoms for ultrasonic human body investigation, which in today's market make up more than 30% in the world of phantoms. We developed a novel composite material which allows fabrication of various kinds of ultrasound bone phantoms to mimic most of the acoustical properties of human bones. In contrast to the ex vivo tissues, the proposed material can maintain the physical and acoustical properties unchanged for long periods of time; moreover, these properties can be custom designed and created to suit specific needs. As a result, we introduce three examples of ultrasound phantoms that we manufactured in our laboratory: cortical, trabecular and skull bone phantoms. The paper also presents the results of a comparison study between the acoustical and physical properties of actual human bones (reported in the referenced literatures) and the phantoms manufactured by us.

A new adaptive beamforming algorithm for imaging via small-aperture 1-D ultrasonic-phased arrays through composite layered structures is reported. Such structures cause acoustic phase aberration and wave refraction at undulating interfaces and can lead to significant distortion of an ultrasonic field pattern produced by conventional beamforming techniques. This distortion takes the form of defocusing the ultrasonic field transmitted through the barrier and causes loss of resolution and overall degradation of image quality. To compensate for the phase aberration and the refractional effects, we developed and examined an adaptive beamforming algorithm for small-aperture linear-phased arrays. After accurately assessing the barrier's local geometry and sound speed, the method calculates a new timing scheme to refocus the distorted beam at its original location. As a tentative application, implementation of this method for trans-skull imaging of certain types of head injuries through human skull is discussed. Simulation and laboratory results of applying the method on skull-mimicking phantoms are presented. Correction of up to 2.5 cm focal point displacement at up to 10 cm depth under our skull phantom is demonstrated. Quantitative assessment of the method in a variety of temporal focusing scenarios is also reported. Overall temporal deviation on the order of a few nanoseconds was observed between the simulated and experimental results. The single-point adaptive focusing results demonstrate strong potential of our approach for diagnostic imaging through intact human skull. The algorithms were implemented on an ultrasound advanced open-platform controlling 64 active elements on a 128-element phased array.

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Duringultrasonic testing of resistance spot welds in real time the probe sends the sound waves through the thickness of the copper electrode cap into the materials being welded. Characteristics of the reflected waves from the weld interfaces allow a reliable decision to be made on the quality of the joint. Transmission of high frequency sound waves through the relatively thick copper welding cap cause the signal to be greatly attenuated due to grain scattering. For this reason, close monitoring of the copper cap properties prior to installation is essential for adequate performance. Finding copper alloys with a small average grain sizes is essential to minimize the attenuating effects. The conducted backscatter and attenuation experiments indicate correlation between the ultrasonically measured parameters and the optically found copper grain size. This correlation suggests that the attenuation or backscatter technique could be used alone in order to validate the proper copper alloy to be used in spot weld probes. Using non-destructive testing techniques for this purpose greatly reduces the time and cost involved compared to optical techniques.