Thin film phantoms and phantom systems
US5756875A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 14, 1995 |
| Grant date | May 26, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 14, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01N29/0609
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
Phantoms for testing and measuring the performance of ultrasonic imaging systems have regions of precisely controlled scattering or echogenicity which contain sub-resolvable scatterers. The regions are precisely positioned so as to define patterns which form images from which the performance of the ultrasonic imaging system can be evaluated to assure the quality of the images. The phantoms can reveal the combined influences of all the stages in the imaging chain in terms of modulation transfer function and resolution limits as well as other artifacts and defects in the system such as aliasing and degraded frequency response which cannot be evaluated with conventional ultrasound phantoms. The subresolution scattering regions may be formed by printing them on a thin film sheet or substrate using photo lithography, electrostatic xerographic printing or etching; the toner particles or deposited material forming the scatters being sub-resolvable in size. Half-tone masks, such as blue noise masks, may be used to produce regions of precisely controlled sub-resolvable scatters to be used for grey scale evaluation of the imaging system by producing speckle images of different echogenicity. …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.