Monolithic ultrasonic imaging devices, systems and methods

摘要

To implement a single-chip ultrasonic imaging solution, on-chip signal processing may be employed in the receive signal path to reduce data bandwidth and a high-speed serial data module may be used to move data for all received channels off-chip as digital data stream. The digitization of received signals on-chip allows advanced digital signal processing to be performed on-chip, and thus permits the full integration of an entire ultrasonic imaging system on a single semiconductor substrate. Various novel waveform generation techniques, transducer configuration and biasing methodologies, etc., are likewise disclosed. HIFU methods may additionally or alternatively be employed as a component of the “ultrasound-on-a-chip” solution disclosed herein.

主权项

1. An ultrasound device, comprising:
a single solid state semiconductor die with the following components formed thereon:
a plurality of ultrasound elements including a first ultrasound element having at least one first capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) and a second ultrasound element having at least one second CMUT;a first programmable waveform generator coupled to the first ultrasound element and configured to provide a first ultrasound waveform to the first CMUT, the first programmable waveform generator having one or more configurable operating parameters;a second programmable waveform generator coupled to the second ultrasound element and configured to provide a second ultrasound waveform to the second CMUT, the second programmable waveform generator having one or more configurable operating parameters;a controller configured to control values of a first configurable operating parameter of the first programmable waveform generator and a second configurable operating parameter of the second programmable waveform generator;a first analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the first ultrasound element and configured to convert an analog signal provided by the first ultrasound element into a digital signal;a second ADC coupled to the second ultrasound element and configured to convert an analog signal provided by the second ultrasound element into a digital signal; anda digital serial communication module configured to communicate a serial digital stream of data that includes the digital signals from the first and second ADCs from the ultrasound device to an external device.