High-Voltage Bias-Switching Electronics for Volumetric Imaging Using Electrostrictive Row-Column Arrays

Top orthogonal to bottom electrode (TOBE) arrays, also known as row-column arrays, hold great promise for fast high-quality volumetric imaging. Bias-voltage-sensitive TOBE arrays based on electrostrictive relaxors or micromachined ultrasound transducers can enable readout from every element of the array using only row and column addressing. However, these transducers require fast bias-switching electronics which are not part of a conventional ultrasound system and are nontrivial. Here we report on the first modular bias-switching electronics enabling transmit, receive, and biasing on every row and every column of TOBE arrays, supporting up to 1024 channels. We demonstrate the performance of these arrays by connection to a transducer testing interface board (IB) and demonstrate 3-D structural imaging of tissue and 3-D power Doppler imaging of phantoms with real-time B-scan imaging and reconstruction rates. Our developed electronics enable interfacing of bias-switchable TOBE arrays to channel-domain ultrasound platforms with software-defined reconstruction for next-generation 3-D imaging at unprecedented scales and imaging rates.