Self-characterization of commercial ultrasound probes in transmission acoustic inverse scattering: transducer model and volume integral formulation.

A self-contained source characterization method for commercial ultrasound probes in transmission acoustic inverse scattering is derived and experimentally tested. The method is based on modified scattered field volume integral equations that are linked to the source-scattering transducer model. The source-scattering parameters are estimated via pair-wise transducer measurements and the nonlinear inversion of an acoustic propagation model that is derived. This combination creates a formal link between the transducer characterization and the inverse scattering algorithm. The method is tested with two commercial ultrasound probes in a transmission geometry including provisions for estimating the probe locations and aligning a robotic rotator. The transducer characterization results show that the nonlinear inversion fit the measured data well. The transducer calibration and inverse scattering algorithm are tested on simple targets. Initial images show that the recovered contrasts are physically consistent with expected values.