A Programmable Pulser-Receiver Circuit for Single Transducer Medical Ultrasound System

A Programmable Pulser-Receiver Circuit for Single Transducer Medical Ultrasound System

  • Hyun Tae Park Navcours
  • Ji Yong Um Kumoh National Institute of Technology
Keywords: Medical Ultrasound System, Preamplifier, Ultrasonic Pulser, Single Transducer

Abstract

This work presents a proof-of-concept pulser-receiver circuit for a single-transducer-based medical ultrasound system. The proposed circuit consists of a high-voltage pulser and a preamplifier. The pulser can generate an arbitrary pulse waveforms by adjusting external digital control signals. Also, the proposed pulser can drive a transducer with a capacitive load of several nF at a frequency up to 10 MHz by using a single-stack output stage. To reduce an active area, the return-to-ground path of pulser is reused as a transmit/receive switch during an echo-acquisition period. The mid-band gain of preamplifier can be adjusted, and the achieved maximum gain is 45 dB. The input-referred noise voltage of preamplifier is 5.1 uVrms at the maximum gain condition. The proposed ultrasonic pulser-receiver circuit was fabricated in a 180-nm BCD process. The pulser operates at supply voltages of ±10 V, and the preamplifier operates at supply voltages of ±0.9 V. The active area of fabricated chip is 1.09 mm2.

Author Biographies

Hyun Tae Park, Navcours

Hyun Tae Park received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hannam University, Daejeon, Korea in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Currently, he is an FPGA engineer in Navcours, Korea. His research interests include circuit systems for ultrasound medical system and algorithm implementation in FPGA.

Ji Yong Um, Kumoh National Institute of Technology

Ji Yong Um received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Kyungbuk, Korea, in 2006, 2008 and 2013, respectively

From 2016 to 2021, he was an Assistant Professor in Hannam University, Daejeon, Korea. In 2021, he joined the faculty of Department of Medical IT Convergence Engineering in Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Kyungbuk, Korea, where he is currently an Assistant Professor. His research interests include mixed-signal circuit systems for biomedical ultrasound application.

Homepage : https://sites.google.com/view/mcslab

Published
2021-09-27
How to Cite
Park, H. T., & Um, J. Y. (2021). A Programmable Pulser-Receiver Circuit for Single Transducer Medical Ultrasound System. Journal of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.23075/jicas.2021.7.4.007
Section
Articles