A research scanner coupled to a 3072-element dense array for advanced 3-D imaging

Open scanners enable 3-D experimental imaging research but have been so far limited to the use of 2-D sparse or row-column arrays having a relatively low number of elements (typically ≤ 256). 2-D dense arrays remain the gold standard for high-quality 3-D imaging but have thousands of elements that are controlled through sophisticated application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in commercial high-end scanners. This paper reports on the development of a research scanner that fully controls an advanced 2-D 3072-element probe. The system’s performance was preliminarily evaluated by measuring the one-way beams corresponding to three different transmission strategies.