Monolithic ultrasonic imaging devices, systems and methods

• Main Authors: Ralston, Tyler S, Charvat, Gregory L, Rothberg, Jonathan M, Fife, Keith G, Sanchez, Nevada J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 08.12.2020
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DEAF-AID SETS; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; DIAGNOSIS; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; ELECTROTHERAPY; FOR PERFORMING MECHANICAL WORK IN GENERAL; GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS IN GENERAL; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; IDENTIFICATION; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKEACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; MAGNETOTHERAPY; MEASURING; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; METHODS OR APPARATUS FOR GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICALVIBRATIONS OF INFRASONIC, SONIC, OR ULTRASONIC FREQUENCY; MICROSTRUCTURAL TECHNOLOGY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; PROCESSES OR APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTUREOR TREATMENT OF MICROSTRUCTURAL DEVICES OR SYSTEMS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS; RADIATION THERAPY; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SURGERY; TESTING; TRANSPORTING; ULTRASOUND THERAPY

To implement a single-chip ultrasonic imaging solution, on-chip signal processing may be employed in the receive signal path to reduce data bandwidth and a high-speed serial data module may be used to move data for all received channels off-chip as digital data stream. The digitization of received signals on-chip allows advanced digital signal processing to be performed on-chip, and thus permits the full integration of an entire ultrasonic imaging system on a single semiconductor substrate. Various novel waveform generation techniques, transducer configuration and biasing methodologies, etc., are likewise disclosed. HIFU methods may additionally or alternatively be employed as a component of the "ultrasound-on-a-chip" solution disclosed herein.