A 64-Channel transmit beamformer with ± 30-V Bipolar High-Voltage Pulsers for Catheter-Based Ultrasound Probes

Mingliang Tan*, Eunchul Kang, Jae Sung An, Zu Yao Chang, Philippe Vince, Tony Mateo, Nicolas Senegond, Michiel A.P. Pertijs

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article presents a fully integrated 64-channel programmable ultrasound transmit beamformer for catheter-based ultrasound probes, designed to interface with a capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducer (CMUT) array. The chip is equipped with programmable high-voltage (HV) pulsers that can generate ±30-V return-to-zero (RZ) and non-RZ pulses. The pulsers employ a compact back-to-back isolating HV switch topology that employs HV floating-gate drivers with only one HV MOS transistor each. Further die-size reduction is achieved by using the RZ switches also as the transmit/receive (T/R) needed to pass received echo signals to low-voltage receive circuitry. On-chip digital logic clocked at 200 MHz allows the pulse timing to be programmed with a resolution of 5 ns, while supporting pulses of 1 cycle up to 63 cycles. The chip has been implemented in 0.18-μm HV Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) technology and occupies an area of 1.8 mm ×16.5 mm, suitable for integration into an 8-F catheter. Each pulser with embedded T/R switch and digital logic occupies only 0.167 mm2. The pulser successfully drives an 18-pF transducer capacitance at pulse frequencies up to 9 MHz. The T/R switch has a measured ON-resistance of ~180Ω. The acoustic results obtained in combination with a 7.5-MHz 64-element CMUT array demonstrate the ability to generate steered and focused acoustic beams.

Original languageEnglish
Article number9081961
Pages (from-to)1796-1806
Number of pages11
JournalIEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
Volume55
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Keywords

  • Capacitive micro-machined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT)
  • high-voltage (HV) bipolar pulser
  • HV driver
  • transmit beamformer
  • transmit/receive switching
  • ultrasound

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