Blurry Ultrasound Images, Clearer with Attached Lens

[Financial News] A 'detachable' acoustic lens has been developed to easily adjust the focal length of ultrasound inspection equipment, allowing blurry ultrasound images to be seen clearly. It is expected to greatly enhance the accuracy of medical diagnostics and industrial safety inspections by optimizing the resolution of ultrasound inspection equipment according to the purpose of the examination.
The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) announced on the 29th that it has newly developed a 'detachable acoustic lens' that can easily adjust the focal length of ultrasound inspection equipment.
Ultrasound imaging technology is a technique that transmits ultrasound through an object or body and collects the reflected signals to form an image of the internal structure. One of these, C-scan, can generate higher resolution images than other methods, making it widely used in medical diagnostic equipment for cancer tissue examination and non-destructive testing equipment for evaluating defects in aircraft and underground pipelines without physical damage.
To generate high-resolution ultrasound images, the intensity of the transmitted and reflected ultrasound must be increased, and the focal length must be accurately adjusted. For this purpose, C-scan ultrasound inspection equipment uses a focused ultrasound transducer. This device plays a role in enhancing image quality by accurately concentrating widely dispersed ultrasound energy on the inspection target.
The KRISS Acoustic Vibration Ultrasound Measurement Group developed the 'detachable acoustic lens design technology'. By attaching the acoustic lens made by the research team to a focused ultrasound transducer with a fixed focus, the focal length can be adjusted closer or further according to the inspection target without replacing the equipment. It is possible to create a customized focal length that was difficult to adjust with existing equipment, thereby implementing resolution optimized for the inspection target.
In particular, the acoustic lens developed by the research team is designed as an aspherical lens, providing a clearer focus and resolution compared to spherical lenses. The research team also devised a folding method to flexibly adjust the size of the acoustic lens to fit the attachment area.
By attaching the acoustic lens designed by the research team to a relatively low-resolution flat-type ultrasound transducer, it can achieve the same performance as a focused ultrasound transducer. The research team developed not only acoustic lenses for concave surface focused ultrasound transducers but also flat-type acoustic lens design technology.
By attaching the newly developed acoustic lens to C-scan ultrasound inspection equipment and analyzing a phantom simulating the human body, it successfully imaged and analyzed microstructures with a size of 25 micrometers (μm, 1 millionth of a meter). It achieved about 1.5 times higher resolution than equipment without the acoustic lens at the same focal length.
This research achievement was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT's Pan-Government Full-Cycle Medical Device R&D Project and was published in January in the measurement science journal Measurement Science and Technology (IF: 2.4).









jiany@fnnews.com Ji-an Yeon Reporter