Dynamically reconfigurable analog front-end for ultrasonic imaging applications
Vidya Vasudevan, Pramod Govindan, Jafar Saniie · 2014
With extensive applications in imaging and material evaluation, ultrasonic systems have evolved over decades to efficient and more sophisticated equipment. These systems are built aiming at a specific application or at specific target material. In order to make these systems portable and adaptable to the testing environment, we focus on building a more flexible and programmable hardware. We present a fully configurable Analog Front-End (AFE) which possesses the capability for dynamic re-configuration by using an ARM Core for real-time control, data acquisition and signal analysis. The flexibility built into the AFE facilitates various beamforming and signal conditioning requirements. This arrangement enables the back-end processor to support various signal processing algorithms.