title: A Single-Chip 64-Channel Ultrasound RX-Beamformer Including Analog Front-End and an LUT for Non-Uniform ADC-Sample-Clock Generation.
abstract: A 64-channel RX digital beamformer was implemented in a single chip for 3-D ultrasound medical imaging using 2-D phased-array transducers. The RX beamformer chip includes 64 analog front-end branches including 64 non-uniform sampling ADCs, a FIFO/Adder, and an on-chip look-up table (LUT). The LUT stores the information on the rising edge timing of the non-uniform ADC sampling clocks. To include the LUT inside the beamformer chip, the LUT size was reduced by around 240 times by approximating an ADC-sample-time profile w.r.t. focal points (FP) along a scanline (SL) for a channel into a piece-wise linear form. The maximum error between the approximated and accurate sample times of ADC is eight times the sample time resolution (Ts) that is 1/32 of the ultrasound signal period in this work. The non-uniform sampling reduces the FIFO size required for digital beamforming by around 20 times. By applying a 9-dot image from Field-II program and 2-D ultrasound phantom images to the fabricated RX beamformer chip, the original images were successfully reconstructed from the measured output. The chip in a 0.13-um CMOS occupies 30.25 [Formula: see text] and consumes 605 mW.
authors.forename: Yoon-Jee
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung-Eun
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Ji-Yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Um
authors.forename: Min-Kyun
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Chae
authors.forename: Jihoon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bang
authors.forename: Jongkeun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Taeho
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.forename: Byungsub
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jae-Yoon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Sim
authors.forename: Hong-June
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D014159:Transducers; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation*