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  • Title: Front-end receiver electronics for a matrix transducer for 3-D transesophageal echocardiography.
    Author: Yu Z, Blaak S, Chang ZY, Yao J, Bosch JG, Prins C, Lancée CT, de Jong N, Pertijs MA, Meijer GC.
    Journal: IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control; 2012 Jul; 59(7):1500-12. PubMed ID: 22828845.
    Abstract:
    There is a clear clinical need for creating 3-D images of the heart. One promising technique is the use of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). To enable 3-D TEE, we are developing a miniature ultrasound probe containing a matrix piezoelectric transducer with more than 2000 elements. Because a gastroscopic tube cannot accommodate the cables needed to connect all transducer elements directly to an imaging system, a major challenge is to locally reduce the number of channels, while maintaining a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio. This can be achieved by using front-end receiver electronics bonded to the transducers to provide appropriate signal conditioning in the tip of the probe. This paper presents the design of such electronics, realizing time-gain compensation (TGC) and micro-beamforming using simple, low-power circuits. Prototypes of TGC amplifiers and micro-beamforming cells have been fabricated in 0.35-μm CMOS technology. These prototype chips have been combined on a printed circuit board (PCB) to form an ultrasound-receiver system capable of reading and combining the signals of three transducer elements. Experimental results show that this design is a suitable candidate for 3-D TEE.
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