Data acquisition from 2D transducer arrays is one of the main challenges for the development of emerging miniature 3D ultrasound imaging devices, such as 3D trans-esophageal (TEE) and intra-cardiac echocardiography (ICE) probes (Fig. 10.5.1). The main obstacle lies in the mismatch between the large number of transducer elements (103 to 104) and the limited cable count (<200). Recent advances in transducer-on-CMOS integration have enabled the use of in-probe subarray beamforming based on delay-and-sum (DAS) circuits [1] to reduce the channel count by an order of magnitude. Further reduction calls for in-probe digitization to enable more advanced data processing and compression in the digital domain. However, prior designs [2-4] compromise on transducer pitch (> half wavelength) to accommodate the ADC and consume >9mW/element, which translates into unacceptable self-heating in miniature 3D probes.

doi.org/10.1109/ISSCC.2018.8310246, hdl.handle.net/1765/106271
65th IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, ISSCC 2018
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Chen, C., Chen, Z., Bera, D., Noothout, E., Chang, Z. Y., Tan, M. (Mingliang), … Pertijs, M. (2018). A 0.91mW/element pitch-matched front-end ASIC with integrated subarray beamforming ADC for miniature 3D ultrasound probes. In Digest of Technical Papers - IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (pp. 186–188). doi:10.1109/ISSCC.2018.8310246