The Principle of Multidimensional Arrays

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Abstract
Echocardiography is one of the most important diagnostic tools in cardiology today. One-dimensional phased arrays have been used extensively because they have a small footprint and allow beam steering. Their major limitation lies in that these devices can only be used to acquire images of two-dimensional slices in real-time and that the slice thickness cannot be controlled. To allow real-time three-dimensional imaging of the heart and focusing of the ultrasonic beam in two-dimensional, two-dimensional arrays, the design and fabrication of which are enormous engineering challenges, are required. Before reaching this ultimate goal, limited focusing in the elevational plane can be achieved with 1·5-dimensional arrays. Focusing in the elevational plane allows a reduction in slice thickness and thus an improvement in the image quality over a larger depth of view. Copyright 2002 The European Society of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .

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