Modelling and compensation of field distortion due to defective elements in planar ultrasonic arrays

The spatial ultrasonic wave amplitude variations caused by continuous and pulsed wave transducer arrays containing inoperative elements have been computer-simulated and analysed. Comparisons are made of the fields generated by ‘perfect’ and defective arrays, where the defective elements are clustered and/or randomly located. Amplitude and phase compensation techniques have been employed to eliminate distortion due to chosen defective elements in the array and the comparative effectiveness of the compensation strategies are discussed.