A 128-ch Δ-Σ ADC based mixed signal IC for full digital beamforming Wireless handheld Ultrasound imaging system

This paper reports a massively integrated Δ-Σ ADC based mixed signal chipset for a handheld Wireless Ultrasound imaging system. The IC has been fabricated in a standard 0.13 μm 1.5V 7M2F CMOS process with 128 parallel channels containing Delta-Sigma (Δ-Σ) ADCs, Anti-aliasing filter, Decimation filters, Serializers and LVDS drivers. The entire chip is SPI controlled and allows group-level power control through an FPGA. The IC measures 15 × 15 mm and dissipates around ~ 4.6 W of power, with 12-bit resolution at 20 Msps sample rate. The chip was packaged in a thermally stable BGA package and demonstrated in a handheld ultrasound battery operated system with complete digital beamforming.