Singh, Abhinav KumarAbhinav KumarSinghMishro, Pranaba KumarPranaba KumarMishroDas, ShaswataShaswataDasDhawan, RuchikaRuchikaDhawanMallya, Arjun AnandArjun AnandMallyaShekhar, HimanshuHimanshuShekhar2026-02-182026-02-182026-01-010018-945610.1109/TIM.2026.36616982-s2.0-105031146099https://repository.iitgn.ac.in/handle/IITG2025/34637Non-destructive testing (NDT) with ultrasonic imaging is pervasive in industry. Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) can significantly improve spatial resolution and imaging contrast, but requires intensive computational resources and storage. Additionally, SAFT is typically implemented with delay-and-sum (DAS) beamforming, which suffers from limited resolution and inadequate interference rejection. This paper reports pth coherence factor weighted delay and sum beamforming (pCFwDAS), a nonlinear approach that integrates pth root algebra with coherence factor weighting. Data was collected with an aluminum test block and a Verasonics Vantage 128 system equipped with a 32-element linear array transducer (5 MHz frequency) to evaluate imaging performance. A sparse implementation of pCFwDAS was performed with 16 and 8 elements to reduce computational overhead along with graphics processing unit (GPU) implementation. The pCFwDAS approach was compared to pth root DAS and standard DAS approaches. The results shown enhanced contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and reduced side lobe artifacts with pCFwDAS for both the full array and sparse array configurations. With the fully populated array, CNR enhancements of up to 14.7 ± 1.3 dB were observed, and the side lobes were suppressed by up to 33.3 ± 5.7 dB. For sparse array imaging, the CNR was enhanced up to 13.9 ± 3.1 dB, and side lobes were reduced by up to 18.3 ± 3.1 dB. These findings demonstrate the potential of pCFwDAS beamforming to enhance SAFT and enable its implementation with limited computational resources.en-USDelay-and-sum beamformingFull matrix captureSynthetic aperture focusing techniqueSparse arrayTotal focusing methodDelay-and-sum beamforming | Full matrix capture | Sparse array | Synthetic aperture focusing technique | Total focusing methodArticle15579662ArticleArticle