A Pitch-Matched Low-Noise Analog Front-End With Accurate Continuous Time-Gain Compensation for High-Density Ultrasound Transducer Arrays

Journal article (2022)

Authors

P. Guo Electronic Instrumentation - EEMCS
Z.Y. Chang Electronic Instrumentation - EEMCS
E.C. Noothout ImPhys/Medical Imaging - AS
H.J. Vos Erasmus MC, ImPhys/Medical Imaging - AS
Johan G. Bosch Erasmus MC
N. de Jong ImPhys/Medical Imaging - AS , Erasmus MC
M.D. Verweij Erasmus MC, ImPhys/Medical Imaging - AS
M.A.P. Pertijs Electronic Instrumentation - EEMCS
Research Group
Electronic Instrumentation (EEMCS) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2022 P. Guo, Z.Y. Chang, E.C. Noothout, H.J. Vos, Johan G. Bosch, N. de Jong, M.D. Verweij, M.A.P. Pertijs
DOI
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https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2022.3200160
Imaging Transducers Ultrasound imaging Interpolation Trajectory Capacitors Ultrasonic imaging Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) Gain Variable gain amplifier (VGA) Pitch-matched analog front-end (AFE) Time-gain compensation (TGC) Trans-impedance amplifier (TIA)
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Published Date

2022

Language

English

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Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Department

Microelectronics

Research Group

Electronic Instrumentation

Abstract

This article presents a compact analog front-end (AFE) circuit for ultrasound receivers with linear-in-dB continuous gain control for time-gain compensation (TGC). The AFE consists of two variable-gain stages, both of which employ a novel complementary current-steering network (CCSN) as the interpolator to realize continuously variable gain. The first stage is a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) with a hardware-sharing inverter-based input stage to save power and area. The TIA's output couples capacitively to the second stage, which is a class-AB current amplifier (CA). The AFE is integrated into an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in a 180-nm high-voltage BCD technology and assembled with a 100 μm-pitch PZT transducer array of 8 × 8 elements. Both electrical and acoustic measurements show that the AFE achieves a linear-in-dB gain error below ±0.4 dB within a 36-dB gain range, which is > 2 × better than the prior art. Per channel, the AFE occupies 0.025 mm2 area, consumes 0.8 mW power, and achieves an input-referred noise density of 1.31 pA/√Hz.