An Ultrasound ASIC With Universal Energy Recycling for >7-m All-Weather Metamorphic Robotic Vision

• Published in: IEEE journal of solid-state circuits Vol. 57; no. 10; pp. 3036 - 3047
• Main Authors: Wu, Han, Zhang, Miaolin, Shao, Zhichun, Guo, Jiaqi, Ng, Kian Ann, Lin, Liwei, Yoo, Jerald
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.10.2022
• Subjects: All-weather; energy recycling; low-power; Machine vision; Navigation; Phasor measurement units; real-time; Robots; small form factor; Spatial resolution; Transducers; Ultrasonic imaging; ultrasound
• ISSN: 0018-9200; 1558-173X
• DOI: 10.1109/JSSC.2022.3182102

An ultrasound ASIC that enables compact, 3-D nonvisual robotic navigation for >7-m is presented. The proposed ultrasound ASIC mitigates the limitations of camera vision navigation systems in all-weather, low-power, low-cost aspects. The ASIC integrates TX and RX paths for 64 channels, enabling four-directional navigation using 4 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\times </tex-math></inline-formula> 4 ultrasound arrays. The proposed universal energy recycling transmitter (UERTX) driver circuit, which can drive both single-ended and differential transducers, reduces energy consumption by 44% compared with non-overlap switching-assisted conventional class-D ultrasonic drivers, addressing large TX power consumption. In addition, the on- chip programmable power management unit (PMU) eliminates off-chip supplies and reduces off-chip passive components for compact system miniaturization. Furthermore, PMU enables the tuning of TX driving amplitude for the range of 6-14 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text{V}_{\mathrm {pp}} </tex-math></inline-formula> allowing wide detection range adaptability. Fabricated in 0.18 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> 1P6M standard CMOS, the ASIC system measures 25 mm 2 and has >7-m obstacle detection capability while consuming 4.3 mW/channel. The proposed ultrasound ASIC system is demonstrated with a four fps, 3-D navigating metamorphic robot, which consumes 0.28 W, occupies 125 cm 3 , and weighs ≤100 g.