SPARse array TECHniques FOR 3D medical UltraSound – SPARTECHUS

SPARTECHUS is a collaborative research project between the Ultrasound Imaging team of CREATIS, a medical imaging research center, and Imasonic, a manufacturer of ultrasound transducers. Its objective is to develop a new technology of single-element transducers and combine them optimally to produce high quality 3D imaging while maintaining the number of transducers to be connected at a level compatible with the number of channels available on commercial ultrasound devices (typically <256). A new imaging mode will be co-designed to compensate for some of the limitations of scattered networks, particularly the often reduced SNR. The probes developed, by their controlled cost and their compatibility with systems with a low number of channels will make it possible to democratize 3D imaging. They will also pave the way for new multimodal probe concepts (optics-US / imaging -therapy).