27.6 Single-chip 3072ch 2D array IC with RX analog and all-digital TX beamformer for 3D ultrasound imaging

A diagnostic ultrasound (US) system transmits acoustic waves at several to tens of MHz into the human body for clinical purposes and detects the reflected waves to observe the internal organs without having a medical operation or radiation exposure. The system is composed of a main unit and probe connected via coaxial cables. The probe is very small because medical technicians laboriously grab and manipulate it for a long time. To avoid image obscurity depending on medical technicians, high-speed and high-resolution 3D/4D imaging is necessary. For this reason, several thousands of lead bulk piezoelectric material transducers (TD) need to be squeezed into the small probe. Since the number of cables is limited to several hundreds, the probe needs to include beamforming functionality and a 2D array IC [1–6], which includes thousands of US transceivers.