DETERMINING THE CONDITIONS FOR MEASUREMENT OF SPATIAL-PEAK TEMPORAL-AVERAGED INTENSITY IN SCANNED ULTRASOUND BEAMS

This paper describes a new three stage approach which simplifies the p rocess of measurement of spatial-peak temporal-averaged intensity for scanned ultrasound beams. Firstly, the conditions delivering the maxim um total acoustic power are determined. Secondly, out-of-plane beamwid ths are measured which, together with knowledge of the in-plane scan w idths, are used to locate the depth at which the scanned area is at a minimum. Finally, the spatial-peak temporal-average intensity is measu red using the conditions and depth identified in the first two stages. Experimental results justify the use of this new procedure.