A Single-Chip 64-Channel Ultrasound RX-Beamformer Including Analog Front-End and an LUT for Non-Uniform...

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Electrical Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• 3-D ultrasound medical imaging requires sophisticated signal processing.
• Digital beamformers are crucial components for reconstructing ultrasound images.
• Existing beamformer designs face challenges in terms of chip size and power consumption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a compact and efficient 64-channel digital beamformer chip for 3-D ultrasound imaging.
• To reduce the data processing load through non-uniform sampling techniques.
• To validate the performance of the fabricated chip using standard imaging phantoms.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a 64-channel RX digital beamformer on a single chip using 0.13-um CMOS technology.
• Integration of 64 non-uniform sampling analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), FIFO/Adder, and an on-chip look-up table (LUT).
• Approximation of ADC-sample-time profiles into a piece-wise linear form to reduce LUT size and utilization of non-uniform sampling to decrease FIFO size.

Main Results:

• Successful reconstruction of original images from a 9-dot image and 2-D ultrasound phantom images using the fabricated chip.
• The on-chip LUT size was reduced by approximately 240 times.
• Non-uniform sampling reduced the required FIFO size by approximately 20 times.
• The chip occupies 30.25 mm² and consumes 605 mW.

Conclusions:

• The developed 64-channel digital beamformer chip enables efficient 3-D ultrasound medical imaging.
• The integration of non-uniform sampling ADCs and an optimized LUT significantly enhances beamformer performance and reduces resource requirements.
• The fabricated chip demonstrates successful image reconstruction, paving the way for advanced ultrasound diagnostic tools.