ULA-OP: A Fully Open Ultrasound Imaging/Doppler System

Experimental research in Imaging/Doppler ultrasound frequently involves new transmission strategies, non-conventional beamforming techniques, custom data processing. This flexibility is not available on commercial equipment designed for clinical use but only on few existing research platforms which, on the other hand, are typically characterized by cumbersome and expensive electronics. In this paper, we present a novel ULtrasound Advanced Open Platform (ULA-OP), designed in the effort to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks. ULA-OP hardware and software are described in detail and the system capabilities are shown with two preliminary, non-conventional applications.