Breast imaging with a conical transducer/ annular array hybrid scanner

A hybrid conical scanner consisting of a 37.5 degrees, 4 MHz conical receiver and a five element 5 cm dia. 4 MHz annular array transmitter has been developed for breast imaging. The ultrasound fields and imaging characteristics of three interesting geometries are compared. These are: (1) the annular array used in conventional pulse-echo mode, (2) the conical transducer used in combination with the full annular array and (3) the conical transducer used in combination with the center element of the annular array (simple conical scanner). Both conical systems provide extremely narrow (0.3 mm) beamwidths at -6dB but the cone/annular array combination has significantly improved sidelobe characteristics compared with the simple conical scanner. The combination of high resolution and reasonable sidelobe levels for the cone/annular array hybrid results in images with very fine speckle patterns and good definition of small structures. Breast images from young normal volunteers show that this approach has considerable potential for clinical application.