The Effect of Retrospective Transmit Focusing on Minimum Variance Beamforming

Minimum variance (MV) beamforming is a well-known adaptive beamforming approach. Retrospective transmit beamforming (RTB), on the other hand, is a technique implemented in some modern ultrasound scanners that strives to obtain two-way focus everywhere in the imaged region. However, it is not immediately clear how these methods should be combined in the image reconstruction pipeline. In this work, we suggest a general and efficient implementation for combining MV with RTB, and we study a few effects and synergetic benefits in comparison to multiple line acquisition processing and conventional delay-and-sum beamforming. Our finding is that RTB improves the resolution and robustness of MV beamforming outside the focal zone.