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

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 Vrms 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.