We present the newest application specific version of our beamformer platform “DiPhAS” that provides 256 parallel channels both for generation of ultrasound signals as well as digitalization of returned echos. Using ultrasound transducers with lots of elements requires high channel count electronics. Applications for such systems range from functional ultrafast imaging using high element count linear array transducers for imaging of a large field of view to real time volumetric imaging with matrix array transducers. To perform volumetric transmit beamforming with matrix transducers, lots of these matrix elements have to be controlled individually. Furthermore, many elements need to be excited in order to compensate for the small active element size and provide a sufficient overall active footprint to generate enough acoustic power for imaging with adequate SNR. The system is set up based on our platform concept with the common ultrasound research device components: mainboard, power supply, application-specific new front ends integrating 16 channels on each PCB and device software. Using 16 front ends results in a total channel count of 256. The new front ends are based on our existing 8 channel front end technology and share the same concepts with doubled channel count for both transmission and reception. The system generates transmit sequences with voltages up to 150 Vpp and digitizes with a sampling rate of up to 80 MHz. The beamformer implements the control for additional external multiplexers in the transducer probe. This has been tested with an external transducer matrix array and can be used to connect to our custom 1024 elements matrix array (32×32 elements) with a 1:4 multiplexer integrated into the probe head. Received data can be accessed as single element channel data of all 256 channels in parallel and transferred to a PC via PCI-Express. Beamforming can be done on a massively parallel computing graphics processor (GPU). The used software includes standard applications for measurements and interfaces for Matlab, C++ and C#. It is used to process, analyze and visualize data from the beamformer. This system will be scalable to an even higher channel count by connecting several beamformers to a single PC using multiple PCI-Express connections and additional synchronization over all single beamformer electronics. It is the basis of our 3D/4D ultrasound research system connected to our matrix arrays developed in-house
Volumetric ultrasound imaging is of great importance in many medical fields, especially in cardiology, but also in therapy monitoring applications. For development of new imaging technologies and scanning strategies, it is crucial to be able to use a hardware platform that is as free and flexible as possible and does not restrict the user in his research in any way. For this purpose, multi-channel ultrasound systems are particularly suitable, as they are able to control each individual element of a matrix array without the use of a multiplexer. We set out to develop a fully integrated, compact 1024-channel ultrasound system that provides full access to all transmission parameters and all digitized raw data of each transducer element. For this purpose, we synchronize four research scanners of our latest “DiPhAS” ultrasound research system generation, each with 256 parallel channels, all connected to a single PC on whose GPUs the entire signal processing is performed. All components of the system are housed in a compact, movable 19-inch rack. The system is designed as a general-purpose platform for research in volumetric imaging; however, the first-use case will be therapy monitoring by tracking radiation-sensitive ultrasound contrast agents.
Several research platforms are available for the development of ultrasound applications and algorithm designs but they are all limited by its digitalization frequency ranging up to 80 MHz for standard medical imaging. Using transducers with mid frequencies above 20 MHz for high resolution (bio-) medical imaging, small animal imaging, skin imaging or non-destructive material testing requires ultrasound devices with higher sampling rates. Based on the ultrasound research platform 'DiPhAS' we realized the high frequency version of the beamformer with a digitalization rate of up to 480 MHz at all 128 channels. Each channel is built individually because no integrated circuits with multiple channels are commercially available for such a high digitalization rate. Transmission can be done with pre-flashed but customizable excitation sequences and output voltage up to 22 Vpp. The received data can be accessed as single element channel data of all 128 channels in parallel and transferred to a PC via Gigabit Ethernet or PCI-Express. Beamforming can be done on a massive parallel computing graphics processor (GPU). Online and offline software packages including closed loop control and filtering interfaces for Matlab, C++ and C# are used to process, analyze and visualize the data to characterize the beamformer. The system was set up successfully and evaluated and characterized for biomedical imaging methods using three 128 element ultrasound arrays (all designed by Fraunhofer IBMT) working at center frequencies of 35 MHz, 52 MHz and 56 MHz. The applications demonstrate the performance of the system to meet real time and signal quality demands for high frequency ultrasound imaging
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