High-resolution, reflection mode tomographic imaging. Part II: Application to echography.

Principles of high-resolution, ultrasonic imaging using data acquisition by a compound scanning with a sector echograph are presented. The signal processing is based on both deconvolution and reflection mode tomography. Three of the methods that can be derived from these principles are selected due to their lower computation costs. Applications of these methods to synthetic data and test targets demonstrate that, with respect to 2D deconvolution, they offer: a gain in computation time of more than 8, an improvement in resolution of the order of 10 and an increase of S/N ratio of the order of 4. Finally, both the effects of limited acquisition angular window and of a variable propagation speed are illustrated.