A low-complexity and high-frequency ASIC transceiver for an ultrasound imaging system

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering
• Integrated Circuit Design

Background:

• Ultrasound imaging systems require efficient and high-performance transceivers.
• Minimizing complexity in application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) is crucial for system integration and cost-effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel high-frequency ASIC transceiver for ultrasound imaging systems.
• To achieve low complexity while maintaining high performance in both transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) functions.

Main Methods:

• Designed a low-complexity ASIC transceiver utilizing a Class-D power amplifier for TX and a resistive feedback transimpedance amplifier (TIA) for RX.
• Optimized the receiver (RX) circuit, comprising a common-source amplifier and a source follower, for high gain and low noise.
• Fabricated the ASIC using a 0.18 μm HV bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process.

Main Results:

• Achieved a measured transimpedance gain of 90 dBΩ and input-referred noise of 5.6 pA/√Hz at 30 MHz for the RX.
• Maintained a wide bandwidth of up to 30 MHz for both TX and RX.
• Demonstrated acoustic performance with a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT), showing 1.78 kPa peak pressure and confirming bandwidth compatibility.

Conclusions:

• The developed ASIC transceiver offers a low-complexity, high-performance solution for ultrasound imaging.
• The design exhibits excellent gain, low noise, and wide bandwidth, suitable for advanced medical ultrasound applications.
• The successful integration with a CMUT validates the transceiver's capability for effective ultrasound imaging.