Title
A Pitch-Matched High-Frame-Rate Ultrasound Imaging ASIC for Catheter-Based 3-D Probes
Author
Hopf, Y.M. (TU Delft Electronic Instrumentation)
Simoes dos Santos, D. (TU Delft ImPhys/Medical Imaging; TU Delft ImPhys/Verweij group)
Ossenkoppele, Boudewine W. (Student TU Delft)
Noothout, E.C. (TU Delft ImPhys/Verweij group)
Chang, Z.Y. (TU Delft Electronic Instrumentation)
Chen, Chao (Student TU Delft)
Vos, H.J. (TU Delft ImPhys/Verweij group; Erasmus MC)
Verweij, M.D. (TU Delft ImPhys/Medical Imaging; TU Delft ImPhys/Verweij group; Erasmus MC)
de Jong, N. (TU Delft ImPhys/De Jong group; Erasmus MC)
Pertijs, M.A.P. (TU Delft Electronic Instrumentation)
Date
2024
Abstract
This article presents an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for catheter-based 3-D ultrasound imaging probes. The pitch-matched design implements a comprehensive architecture with high-voltage (HV) transmitters, analog front ends, hybrid beamforming analog-To-digital converters (ADCs), and data transmission to the imaging system. To reduce the number of cables in the catheter while maintaining a small footprint per element, transmission (TX) beamforming is realized on the chip with a combination of a shift register (SR) and a row/column (R/C) approach. To explore an additional cable-count reduction in the receiver part of the design, a channel with a combination of time-division multiplexing (TDM), subarray beamforming, and multi-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) data transmission is also included. This achieves an 18-fold cable-count reduction and minimizes the power consumption in the catheter by a load modulation (LM) cable driver. It is further explored how common-mode interference can limit beamforming gain and a strategy to reduce its impact with local regulators is discussed. The chip was fabricated in TSMC 0.18-m HV BCD technology and a 2-D PZT transducer matrix of 16 × 18 elements with a pitch of 160 m and a center frequency of 6 MHz was manufactured on the chip. The system can generate all required TX patterns at up to 30 V, provides quick settling after the TX phase, and has an reception (RX) power consumption of only 1.12 mW/element. The functionality and operation of up to 1000 volumes/s have been demonstrated in electrical and acoustic imaging experiments.
Subject
3-D ultrasound
analog front end (AFE)
common-mode interference suppression
high frame rate
intracardiac echocardiography (ICE)
load-modulation datalink
transmit beamformer
transmit/receive (T/R) switching
ultrasound application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:268a3b5b-fc9b-418f-948d-16530e661d33
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2023.3299749
Embargo date
2024-07-30
ISSN
0018-9200
Source
IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, 59 (2), 476-491
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
journal article
Rights
© 2024 Y.M. Hopf, D. Simoes dos Santos, Boudewine W. Ossenkoppele, E.C. Noothout, Z.Y. Chang, Chao Chen, H.J. Vos, M.D. Verweij, N. de Jong, M.A.P. Pertijs, More Authors