A Pitch-Matched Transceiver ASIC for 3D Ultrasonography with Micro-Beamforming ADCs based on Passive Boxcar Integration and a Multi-Level Datalink

This paper presents a pitch-matched transceiver ASIC integrated with a 2-D transducer array for a wearable ultrasound device for transfontanelle ultrasonography. The ASIC combines 8-fold multiplexing, 4-channel micro-beamforming (μ BF) and sub-array-level digitization to achieve a 128-fold channel-count reduction. The μ BF is based on passive...

High-frame-rate Volumetric Porcine Cardiac Imaging

Volumetric echocardiography can potentially give a more complete picture of cardiac dynamics than its two-dimensional (2D) counterpart. Current clinical volumetric imaging probes have relatively low frame rates, and often require ECG gating to stitch together an entire volume. This makes measuring fast dynamics of the heart as well as imaging...

3-D contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging of an in vivo chicken embryo with a sparse array and deep learning based adaptive beamforming

3-D contrast enhanced ultrasound enables better visualization of inherently 3-D vascular geometries compared to an intersecting plane. Additionally, it would allow the application of motion correction techniques for all directions. Both contrast detection and motion correction work better on high-frame rate data. However high-frame rate 3-D...

A 1.2mW/channel 100m-Pitch-Matched Transceiver ASIC with Boxcar-Integration-Based RX Micro-Beamformer for High-Resolution 3D Ultrasound Imaging

The integration of 2D ultrasonic transducer arrays and pitch-matched ASICs has enabled the realization of various 3D ultrasound imaging devices in recent years [1]-[3]. As applications such as 3D intravascular ultrasonography, intra-cardiac echocardiography, and trans-fontanelle ultrasonography call for miniaturization and improved spatial...

A Pitch-Matched ASIC with Integrated 65V TX and Shared Hybrid Beamforming ADC for Catheter-Based High-Frame-Rate 3D Ultrasound Probes

Intra-cardiac echography (ICE) probes (Fig. 32.2.1) are widely used in electrophysiology for their good procedure guidance and relatively safe application. ASICs are increasingly employed in these miniature probes to enhance signal quality and reduce the number of connections needed in mm-diameter catheters [1]-[5]. 3D visualization in real...

Automated Characterization of Matrix Transducer Arrays using the Verasonics Imaging System

Over the past decades, ultrasound imaging has made considerable progress based on the advancement of imaging systems as well as transducer technology. With the need for advanced transducer arrays with complex designs and technical requirements, there is also a need for suitable tools to characterize such transducers. However, despite the...

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Subdicing on an Ultrasound Matrix Transducer

Over the past decades, real-time three-dimensional (3D) medical ultrasound has attracted much attention since it enables clinicians to diagnose more accurately. This calls for ultrasound matrix transducers with a large number of elements, which can be interfaced with an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for data reduction. An...

Tracking electromechanical muscle dynamics using ultrafast ultrasound and high-density EMG

Current methods to track the progression and evaluate treatment of muscular dystrophies are scarce. The electromechanical delay (EMD), defined as the time lag from muscle electrical activity to motion onset, has been proposed as a biomarker, but provides only limited insight in the pathophysiol-ogy of muscle function. This work proposes and...

3D high frame rate flow measurement using a prototype matrix transducer for carotid imaging

To accurately investigate the state of the carotid artery by the local haemodynamics and motion of the plaque using ultrasound, high-frame rate volumetric imaging is necessary. We have specifically designed a matrix array for this purpose. In this proceeding we will focus on imaging a volumetric flow profile using this matrix. For this...

Frequency Domain Two-Stage Beamforming for Phased Array Imaging Using the Fast Hankel Transform

The huge amount of data that needs to be transferred between probe and imaging system becomes a major issue when the data transfer capacity is limited, e.g. in handheld systems, wireless probes and miniaturized probes. The amount of data can be significantly reduced by using two-stage beamforming. The first stage consists of a fixed focus...

Ultrasound contrast agent imaging: Real-time imaging of the superharmonics

Currently, in medical ultrasound contrast agent (UCA) imaging the second harmonic scattering of the microbubbles is regularly used. This scattering is in competition with the signal that is caused by nonlinear wave propagation in tissue. It was reported that UCA imaging based on the third or higher harmonics, i.e. “superharmonic” imaging, shows...