Lecture notes

Ultrasound Physics (MDR 522)

 Ultrasound Physics
• Sound is a mechanical, longitudinal wave that travels in a
straight line
• Sound requires a medium through which to travel
Lecture Objectives

• - Encourage the students understanding and appreciation of

ultrasound physics
• - Also student should have brief knowledge of:-
• 1- How to deal with ultrasound machine and care
• 2-Identificatin of basic theory of ultrasound physics
• 3- Type of different frequency
• 4- Artifacts
 Sound

• Sound frequencies are audible to the human ear is between

20 to 20,000 hertz (one hertz is one cycle per second).
• Sound frequencies below the range of human hearing are
known as infrasound.
• Sound frequencies above the human audible range is known
as ultrasound.
 Types of wave
1. Transverse Wave: A wave in which the oscillations are
perpendicular (transverse) to the direction the wave
travels.
Example: electromagnetic waves, water wave
2. Longitudinal Wave: A wave in which the oscillations are
along the direction the wave travels.
•Example: sound wave

Please click on the link!

https://youtu.be/Q6RRoTbRdFI
 Wave Terminology
The characteristic of a sound wave can be describe by the
following parameter:
•Period(T):-the time taken for a particle in the medium
through which the wave is traveling to make one complete
cycle. The period T – is given by 1​ ⁄f 
•Frequency(f):-the number of cycle per second. Expressed in
HERTZ(Hz).
• 1Hz= 1cycle per second
 Continue
• Wave length(λ): the distance between two successive
“like” points on a wave, which is typically between 0.1-1
mm for medical ultrasound imaging

• Velocity(c): speed of sound with direction specified

 Wavelength

Wavelength is the distance between any two consecutive identical points

on a wave.
 Continue
• The wavelength and frequency of US are inversely related,
i.e., ultrasound of high frequency has a short wavelength
and vice versa
 SPEED OF SOUND

• Propagation velocity: It depends on tissue density and is

lowest in air, higher in soft tissue, and highest in solids

• The denser the medium, the greater the acoustic

impedance, and the faster the sound will travel
• How to calculate reflector distance? (time it takes to
propagate to the reflector and back to the transducer)
• Distance = speed x time.
• Reflector distance = speed of the sound x go–return time \ 2
Propagation Speeds in Soft Tissues
and Other Materials:
MEDIUM SPEED (m/s)
air 330
fat 1460
Water (20˚) 1480
6% saline(20˚) 1540
Soft tissue (average) 1540
blood 1570
kidney 1560
liver 1550
muscle 1580
bone 4000
• (Q1) – For an ultrasound wave with a frequency 10 MHz,
what is its wavelength in soft tissue?
• (Q2) A wave has a frequency of 50Hz. How long does it take
for the wave to complete one full cycle?
• (Q3) Assuming the speed of sound in air is 330 m/s, and it
takes 0.4 seconds for an echo, calculate distance?
• Specular reflectors: the interfaces responsible for the major
organ outlines seen in ultrasound imaging, dependent on the
incident beam angle and the reflector surface
1.Smooth surface: the interface is large compared with the
wavelength size of the sound wave
2. Rough surface: when the undulations are approximately one
wavelength or less then sound is reflected in all directions, this
is known as diffuse reflection
• Gain: the degree of amplification of the returning echo
displayed on ultrasound image, usually expressed in decibels
(dB). Gain is an input function

• Artifact - an echo feature, present or absent in a sonogram,

which does not correspond to the presence or absence of a
real target e.g. Reverberations and shadowing
 Ultrasound Generation
• Piezoelectrical Effect: This is the ability of a material
to generate an electrical charge in response to
applied pressure

• Materials that expand and contract with current

 Ultrasound Generation
• These materials convert electrical energy into a mechanical
ultrasound wave
• Reflected echoes return to the scan head which converts
the ultrasound wave into an electrical signal
 Piezoelectrical materials

• A synthetic ceramic material, lead, zirconate and titanate,

(PZT)

• PZT materials can be degraded by

– Mechanical damage, such a dropping
– Heating
– Exceeding the electrical limits set by the manufacture
 Crystal

• The crystal (s) is located at the end of the probe which is in

contact with the patient
• A thick crystal produces a low frequency ultrasound wave.
Conversely, a thinner crystal produces a higher frequency
 Frequency Vs. Resolution
• The frequency also affects the QUALITY of the ultrasound
image
• The HIGHER the frequency, the BETTER the resolution
• The LOWER the frequency, the LESS the resolution
• A 12 MHz transducer has better resolution than a 3 MHz
transducer
 Frequency Vs. Penetration
• The HIGHER the frequency, the LESS the penetration

• The LOWER the frequency, the DEEPER the penetration

 Principles of Image Information
Pulse-Echo in tissue:

•Ultrasound pulse is launched into the first tissue

•At tissue interface a portion of ultrasound signal is transmitted into
the second tissue and a portion is reflected within the first tissue
(termed an echo)
•Echo signal is detected by the transducer
 Principles of Image Information

B-Mode Imaging:
•Brightness mode scanning, which is composed of bright dots
representing the ultrasound echoes. The brightness of each dot is
determined by the amplitude of the returned echo signal
•Each echo is displayed at a point in the image which corresponds
to the relative position of its origin within the body
•Brightness of the dots is proportional to the strength of the
returning echoes
 ACOUSTIC IMPEDANCE

• Acoustic impedance (Z): is a characteristic of media which

describes the medium's resistance and the propagation of sound
waves
• is the product of the speed of sound (c) and density (D). It is
calculated as follows Z= C*D
• The unit of acoustic impedance is the Rayl which is the product of
m/s and kg/m3
 ACOUSTIC IMPEDANCE MISMATCH

• Z1=Z2 : Substances with same acoustic impedance there is total

transmission of energy (100%) and therefore no reflection

• Z1<Z2 or Z1>Z2: small difference in (Z) results in a large amount of

energy transmitted (95-99%) and small amount of energy reflected
e.g. fat/muscle

• Z1<<Z2 or Z1>>Z2: if there is a large difference in (Z), there is a large

amount of reflected energy e.g. bone/muscle or air/soft tissue
 ATTENUATION

• Attenuation is the reduction or decrease in the intensity and

amplitude of sound waves as they travel through a medium.
• The unit of attenuation is the bel, or the more commonly used
decibel (dB). Decibel is actually one-tenth of a bel
Attenuation is caused by the following
processes:
• Absorption
• Reflection
• Scattering
• Beam divergence
 Absorption

• This is the main factor causing attenuation of the ultrasound

beam

• Increases linearly with ultrasound frequency

 Reflection

• The amount of energy that is reflected depends on the size of the

acoustic impedance mismatch
• The greater the acoustic impedance mismatch, the greater the
reflected component that occurs

Acoustic impedance mismatch Reflection (%)

Liver/Kidney  ≈ 1%
Liver/air in the bowel ≈ 99.9%
 Scattering

• When an interface is equivalent to one wavelength in size, the

reflected echoes are scattered in all directions
• More scattering will be noted at higher frequencies
• Commonly be seen in organ parenchyma e.g. liver
 Beam Divergence

• When the ultrasound beam diverges, the intensity of the beam

will be reduced
• Divergence will be most notable in the far field of a non-focused
transducer
 Acoustic Window

• An area that provides optimal scanning access to the area of interest

which helps getting a good image quality

• Solid organ or fluid filled area:

– Liver
– Urinary bladder
– Spleen
– Fluid filled stomach (for pancreatic scan)
 Resolution
1- Spatial Resolution: Ability to delineate between two different
objects

Types of Spatial Resolution:

A) Axial Resolution: The ability to recognize two different objects at
slightly different depths
•Depends upon the spatial pulse length which can be made shorter at
higher frequencies (1/2 pulse length)
 continue
B) Lateral Resolution: The ability to distinguish objects that are side
by side
•Determined by beam width & is highly dependent on beam focusing

Axial Resolution Lateral Resolution

 Continue

2-Temporal Resolution: Ability to display events which occur at

different times as separate images
•dependent on frame rate
•It is important when looking at rapidly moving structures such as
the Heart Beating
 continue

3-Contrast Resolution: Ability to differentiate between tissues and

display them as different shades of gray

The main factors affecting it are:

•Transducer design (higher frequency provides better resolution)
•pre & post processing options
•Gain and TGC
 Beam Shape

• It can be subdivided into two regions:

1.Near Field or (Fresnel zone)

It extends from the transducer face to the transition point, and is
characterized by beam convergence and a natural focus
 Beam Shape

2. Far Field or (Fraunhofer zone)

It is the portion of the sound beam beyond the transition point and
is characterized
by beam divergence
 Frame Rate
• Frame Rate: number of images / sec
• Temporal resolution is determined by frame rate
• Frame Rate is dependent on:
1. Line Density: number of line / frame
2. PRF
• Line required per image =100

Frame Rate= PRF/Lines per frame

• PRF= 1000 pulses/s
• No. of lines per image= 100
• What is the frame rate?
 PRF & PRP
• PRF: Number of pulses occurring in one s. Usually expressed in
kHz
• PRP: Time from the beginning of one pulse to the beginning of
the next. Usually expressed in microseconds (µs). PRP=1\PRF
• PRP decreases as PRF increases
 Spatial Pulse Length

• SPL: the distance that the pulse occupies in space, from the
beginning of one pulse till the end of that same pulse
• SPL= wavelength x no. of cycles
• SPL ranges from 0.1 to 1 mm, shorter pulse length improves
resolution
Ultrasound Machine Components
Basic requirements of any u/s scanner:

1- Generate pulses of u/s

2- Detect the echoes generated in the tissues
3- Measure time
4- Determine the position or the origin of the echo
5- Display the information
 US Machine Components

1- Transducer
2- Transmitter (pulser)
3- Beam Former
4- Receiver
5- processor
6- Image Display
7- Hard/Soft copy storage
 Image Controls (Knobology)

• Output Power
• Gain
• TGC
• Depth
• Focus
• Dynamic range
• Zoom/magnification
• Freeze/cineloop
• Calculations
• Print
 Power Output

• It is determined by the transmitter, and increasing the power to

the transducer increases the pulse intensity, resulting in brighter
images
 Gain

• Echo or signal amplification is necessary because the returning

echoes are too weak to be displayed
• Optimize gain to obtain most details
• High gain can obscure many details
Gain (too high !)
Gain (too low !)
Gain (that’s right !)
 Time Gain compensation
• Attenuation causes weaker signals to be received from
structures that lie deeper than those which lie closer to the
transducer face
• Used to equalize the stronger echoes in the near field with the
weaker echoes in the far field
• Should be a gentle curve
continue
 Depth
• The optimal depth is dependent upon beam penetration,
which is determined by the transducer frequency
• May need to increase the depth of penetration to visualize
larger organs

As the depth control is increased the time it takes for a pulse

to return to the transducer is ………..
Depth (too much !)
Depth (too little !)
Depth (just right !)
 Focus

• Used to improve the resolution at a given depth by narrowing the

beam width
• The focal zone should be positioned at the level of interest within
the B-mode imaging
• The transducer focuses the beam by introducing a series of time
delays across a group of elements which are to be excited
• Doubling the number of focal zones halves the frame rate

FZ fps
1 40
2 20
Focus (out focus !)

Focus
Focus (good !)
Focus (multiple !)
 Dynamic Range

• Ratio of the largest to the smallest echo contributing to the image

• This will remove low-level echoes from the display and result in an
image with more contrast
• Widest dynamic range possible to get better contrast between
structures (more shades of grey)
• The narrow the dynamic range, the more black and white
appearance of the image
Dynamic Range
 Zoom
• Used to magnify an area of interest on the screen
• May lose some resolution because pixels are enlarged
 Freeze and Cineloop

• Activating the freeze button stops any further acquisition and

processing of data from the transducer

• Cineloop is a period of images, stored digitally as a sequence of

frames, which can be individually reviewed in turn using this
function
 Ultrasound Transducer
• It is a device that used to convert one form of energy to another,
in this case electrical energy into mechanical energy and vice
versa
• Basic Components of the transducer:
1. Physical Housing:
• made of plastic material and provides the necessary structural
support and acts as an electrical and acoustic insulator
• Its shape depends on transducer type

2. Electrical Connections:
• Two electrical connections are formed on the front and back
face of the crystal by plating a thin film of gold or silver on
these surfaces. These electrodes are connected to the
ultrasound machine which generates the short burst of
electrical pulses to excite the crystal and through the
piezoelectric effect generates a pulse of ultrasound energy
3. Piezoelectric crystal:
•For maximum efficiency the crystal should be operating at its
natural or resonant frequency. This occurs when the thickness of
the crystal is half a wavelength (λ/2)

4.Backing (Damping) Material:

•The backing material is located behind the piezoelectric element to
prevent excessive vibration
•Reducing excessive vibration will cause the element to generate
ultrasonic waves with a shorter SPL, improving axial resolution in
images. However, this reduces the sensitivity of the transducer to
detect weak echoes
5. Matching layers:
•These are interfaced between the crystals and the patient to reduce
the acoustical impedance mismatch between the patient and the
transducer
•A high acoustical impedance mismatch would create a strong
reverberation artifact

•Without this matching layer, Do you think most of the energy would
be reflected or transmitted? Justify your answer
6. Insulation ring (side wall insulator):
• It is made of the same damping material. Its function is to absorb
energy generated from the sides of the crystal

7. Tuning coil:
• It is a capacitive device. Its function is to offset the capacitive
effect of the crystal so as to improve transmitting and receiving
function

8. Electrical shield:
• Its function is to pick up the unwanted signals after the
conversion of ultrasound echoes