A programmable FPGA-based 8-channel arbitrary waveform generator for medical ultrasound research activities

Assef, Amauri Amorin; Maia, Joaquim Miguel; Schneider, Fábio Kurt; Costa, Eduardo Tavares; Button, Vera Lúcia da Silveira Nantes

doi:10.1109/embc.2012.6345981

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The reconfigurable arbitrary waveform generator (RAWG) consists of a personal computer (PC) for configuration through an USB 2.0 interface and two printed circuit boards (PCB): a digital FPGA-based control board and an AWG and analog transceiver board [21]. …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The AWG board includes eight high-speed arbitrary waveform push-pull source driver MD2130 (Supertex Inc., CA, USA), high-voltage MOSFETs, US pulse transformers for impedance matching and T/R switches for interface with commercial analog front-end (AFE) evaluation modules, as described by Assef et al [21]. The communication between the FPGA and the US beamforming source drivers is performed by eight high-speed serial peripheral interface (SPI) to achieve fast updating, through a 172-pin High-Speed Mezzanine Card (HSMC) connector (Samtec Inc., IN, USA).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A reconfigurable arbitrary waveform generator using PWM modulation for ultrasound research

Assef

Maia

Schneider

et al. 2013

BioMedical Engineering OnLine

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BackgroundIn ultrasound imaging systems, the digital transmit beamformer is a critical module that generates accurate control over several transmission parameters. However, such transmit front-end module is not typically accessible to ultrasound researchers. To overcome this difficulty, we have been developing a compact and fully programmable digital transmit system using the pulse-width modulation (PWM) technique for generating simultaneous arbitrary waveforms, specifically designed for research purposes.MethodsIn this paper we present a reconfigurable arbitrary waveform generator (RAWG) for ultrasound research applications that exploits a high frequency PWM scheme implemented in a low-cost FPGA, taking advantage of its flexibility and parallel processing capability for independent controlling of multiple transmission parameters. The 8-channel platform consists of a FPGA-based development board including an USB 2.0 interface and an arbitrary waveform generator board with eight MD2130 beamformer source drivers for individual control of waveform, amplitude apodization, phase angle and time delay trigger.ResultsTo evaluate the efficiency of our system, we used equivalent RC loads (1 kΩ and 220 pF) to produce arbitrary excitation waveforms with the Gaussian and Tukey profiles. The PWM carrier frequency was set at 160 MHz featuring high resolution while keeping a minimum time delay of 3.125 ns between pulses to enable the acoustic beam to be focused and/or steered electronically. Preliminary experimental results show that the RAWG can produce complex arbitrary pulses with amplitude over 100 Vpp and central frequency up to 20 MHz with satisfactory linearity of the amplitude apodization, as well as focusing phase adjustment capability with angular resolution of 7.5°.ConclusionsThe initial results of this study showed that the proposed research system is suitable for generating simultaneous arbitrary waveforms, providing extensive user control with direct digital access to the various transmission parameters needed to explore alternative ultrasound transmission techniques.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A reconfigurable arbitrary waveform generator using PWM modulation for ultrasound research

Assef

Maia

Schneider

et al. 2013

BioMedical Engineering OnLine

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“…The existing transmit platforms in the literature are using additional expensive electronics for each channel [3]. The hardware of our proposed Tx architecture is optimized with the usage of high performance 8-channel Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) for Tx beamformer and HV pulser as shown in Fig.…”

Section: G Comparative Study With Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Amauri et al in [3] discussed the development of programmable FPGA based 8 independent channel Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG) for medical ultrasound research activities. However, this AWG transmit platform requires additional expensive electronics includes high voltage MOSFET drivers, Transformers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low complex, programmable FPGA based 8-channel ultrasound transmitter for medical imaging researches

Dusa

Rajalakshmi

Puli

et al. 2014

2014 IEEE 16th International Conference on E-Health Networking, Applications and Services (Healthcom)

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Abstract-In commercial ultrasound systems, the transmit module typically generates the time delayed excitation pulses to steer and focus the acoustic beam. However, the ultrasound transmitter module in these systems has limited access to medical ultrasound researchers. In this paper, we have presented the development of a programmable architecture for 8-channel ultrasound transmitter for medical ultrasound research activities. The proposed architecture consists of 8 transmit channels and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based configurable delay profile to steer acoustic beam, transmit frequency and pulse pattern length depending on the medical application. Our system operates in pulse-echo mode, with ultrasound transmit frequency up to 20 MHz, excitation voltage up to 100 Vpp, and individual channel control with single high speed Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). Pre-calculated delay profiles per scanline are generated in Matlab, based on physical parameters of 8 element linear transducer array which are used to steer and focus the ultrasound beam. An experiment is carried with our transmit module to transmit ultrasound into gelatin phantom, acquired echoes and processed for B-mode imaging. The results show that this transmit platform can be used for ultrasound imaging researches and also for medical diagnosis.

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“…Different articles introduced the digital beamformer design using a 5 MHz center frequency beamformer linear array implemented on FPGA as discussed by [27] and with a 50 MHz center frequency annular array by [28,29]. A research-aimed FPGA-based digital transmit beamformer system for generating simultaneous arbitrary waveforms has been developed by [30]. Others have applied over sampling techniques and single transmit focusing as other methodologies for digital beamforming [31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An FPGA Implementation of Resource-Optimized Dynamic Digital Beamformer for a Portable Ultrasound Imaging System

Zheng

Chirala

et al. 2018

Adv. sci. technol. eng. syst. j.

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A programmable FPGA-based 8-channel arbitrary waveform generator for medical ultrasound research activities

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

A reconfigurable arbitrary waveform generator using PWM modulation for ultrasound research

A reconfigurable arbitrary waveform generator using PWM modulation for ultrasound research

Low complex, programmable FPGA based 8-channel ultrasound transmitter for medical imaging researches

An FPGA Implementation of Resource-Optimized Dynamic Digital Beamformer for a Portable Ultrasound Imaging System

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