One array. Different firing times.
Each element produces a wave. Change when the elements fire and watch their waves combine into a straight, steered or focused beam.
Explore the timing
Watch one transmitted pulse
Wavefronts spread from the elements. The coloured band marks where the combined pulse is strongest.
Where the waves reinforce
The map shows the relative intensity pattern for these delays, averaged over wave cycles.
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Show explanation
Teaching model: 16 equally spaced point emitters, 1 mm apart, at 0.75 MHz. Sound speed 1540 m/s. Thin wavefront arcs show every second element for clarity. Wavefronts and the pulse envelope are shown in slow motion; time is in microseconds (µs). The intensity map uses coherent addition of ideal equal-amplitude waves, with no attenuation, geometric spreading or element directivity. It is a schematic transmit field, not an ultrasound image. Real transducers contain many elements and use more complex beamforming. Focusing here is on-axis.