Phase and Amplitude Modulation Methods for Nonlinear Ultrasound Imaging With CMUTs

Conventional amplitude and phase modulated pulse sequences for selective imaging of nonlinear tissue and ultrasound contrast agents are designed for piezoelectric transducers that behave linearly. Inherent nonlinearity of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs), especially during large-signal operation, renders these methods inapplicable. In this paper, we present different pulse sequences for nonlinear imaging that are valid for small- and large-signal CMUT operations. For small-signal operation, two-pulse amplitude and phase modulation methods for microbubble and tissue harmonic imaging are presented, where CMUT nonlinearity is compensated via subharmonic excitation. In the large-signal regime, using a nonlinear model, we first show that there is a simple linear relationship between the phases of each harmonic distortion component generated and the input drive signal. Based on this observation, we demonstrate a pulse sequence using $N+1$ consecutive phase modulated transmit events to extract $N$ harmonics of the nonlinear contrast agent echo content uncorrupted by CMUT nonlinearity. The proposed methods assume no $a\textit {priori}$ information about the transducer and, therefore, are applicable to any CMUT. The phase modulation method is also valid for piezoelectric transducers and systems with nonlinearities described by Taylor series where the same phase relationship between the input signal and the harmonic content is valid. The proof of principle experiments using a commercial contrast agent validates the phase modulated pulse sequences for CMUTs, operating in a highly nonlinear collapse-snapback mode and for piezoelectric transducers.