zea.probes¶

Ultrasound probe definitions and the base Probe class.

A probe describes the physical transducer: element positions, centre frequency, bandwidth, and properties such as element dimensions and lens geometry. All probe objects are instances of Probe, which inherits validation from ProbeSpec.

There are three ways to obtain a probe:

Loading a built-in probe¶

A small set of probes is pre-defined and can be retrieved by name:

>>> from zea import Probe
>>> probe = Probe.from_name("verasonics_l11_4v")
>>> probe.probe_center_frequency
np.float32(6250000.0)
>>> probe.n_el
128

See Probe.from_name() for the full list of registered names.

Built-in probes¶

Verasonics_l11_4v – Verasonics L11-4V linear array
Verasonics_l11_5v – Verasonics L11-5V linear array
Esaote_sll1543 – Esaote SLL1543 linear array

Loading a probe from a data file¶

When you open a File, the probe stored in that file is accessible through the probe property:

>>> from zea import File
>>> path = (
...     "hf://zeahub/picmus/database/experiments/contrast_speckle/"
...     "contrast_speckle_expe_dataset_iq/contrast_speckle_expe_dataset_iq.hdf5"
... )
>>> with File(path) as f:
...     probe = f.probe
>>> probe.name
'verasonics_l11_4v'

Defining a custom probe¶

Pass any combination of fields from ProbeSpec directly to Probe. Only the fields you provide are validated; everything else is left as None:

>>> import numpy as np
>>> from zea import Probe
>>> from zea.probes import create_probe_geometry

>>> probe = Probe(
...     name="my_probe",
...     type="linear",
...     probe_center_frequency=np.float32(5e6),
...     probe_geometry=create_probe_geometry(n_el=64, pitch=0.3e-3),
... )
>>> probe.n_el
64

You can also register a custom probe class with the probe_registry decorator so it becomes retrievable by name — see the built-in classes below as examples.

Saving a probe to a data file¶

Pass a Probe object directly to create() via the probe argument, alternatively a simple dictionary of probe parameters will also work:

>>> import numpy as np
>>> from zea import File, Probe

>>> n_frames, n_tx, n_el, n_ax = 1, 4, 128, 64
>>> probe = Probe.from_name("verasonics_l11_4v")
>>> raw = np.zeros((n_frames, n_tx, n_ax, n_el, 1), dtype=np.float32)
>>> scan = {
...     "sampling_frequency": np.float32(40e6),
...     "center_frequency": np.float32(6.25e6),
...     "demodulation_frequency": np.float32(6.25e6),
...     "initial_times": np.zeros(n_tx, dtype=np.float32),
...     "t0_delays": np.zeros((n_tx, n_el), dtype=np.float32),
...     "tx_apodizations": np.ones((n_tx, n_el), dtype=np.float32),
...     "focus_distances": np.full(n_tx, np.inf, dtype=np.float32),
...     "transmit_origins": np.zeros((n_tx, 3), dtype=np.float32),
...     "polar_angles": np.zeros(n_tx, dtype=np.float32),
...     "time_to_next_transmit": np.ones((n_frames, n_tx), dtype=np.float32) * 1e-4,
... }
>>> File.create(
...     "probe_example.hdf5",
...     data={"raw_data": raw},
...     scan=scan,
...     probe=probe, # dictionary or zea.Probe object
...     overwrite=True,
... )

Functions

create_probe_geometry(n_el, pitch)

Create probe geometry based on number of elements and pitch.

Classes

`Esaote_sll1543`()	Esaote SLL1543 linear ultrasound transducer.
`Probe`([name, type, probe_center_frequency, ...])
`Verasonics_l11_4v`()	Verasonics L11-4V linear ultrasound transducer.
`Verasonics_l11_5v`()	Verasonics L11-5V linear ultrasound transducer.