Pulse inversion linear bandpass filter for detecting subharmonic from microbubbles

Abstract

Subharmonic imaging promises to improve ultrasound imaging quality due to an increasing contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR). However, to improve image quality, signal processing techniques for maximizing subharmonic signal are needed. In this work, we present the pulse inversion linear bandpass filter (PILBF) method for detection of sub harmonic components in order to separate signals from microbubble contrast agent echoes. This method is based on the combination between pulse inversion (PI) and linear bandpass filter (LBF) methods. While PI without LBF produces CTR 54 dB, the PILBF produces 82 dB enhancement. The high CTR value confirms the generation of high quality image.