The multi-element probes for ultrasound transmission tomography

Abstract
The paper presents a method of calculating the acoustic field distribution for multi-element probes designed for uses in Ultrasound Transmission Tomography (UTT). The method allows us to determine the acoustic field for different ultrasonic setups of elementary transducers of the multi-element probe with an assigned geometry of their positions. The basis of this method is summing acoustic fields generated by elementary transducers by means of geometrical transformations of coordinates of location of discussed points of the acoustic field against each of the transducers. By means of this method the distributions of acoustic fields for different configurations of the transducers of multi-element linear and ring probes were calculated in selected planes. The obtained results were the basis for elaborating two models of multi-element probes: a linear probe - consisting of 128 elementary transducers and a ring probe consisting of 1024 elementary transducers. In order to verify the calculation results measurements of acoustic field distribution were also carried out for selected sectors of these probes.