Ultrasound simplification

Analog Devices has introduced a new IC that, it claims, simplifies the development of continuous wave (CW) Doppler imaging in stationary and portable ultrasound systems.

CW Doppler is an advanced Doppler technique, used in approximately 30% of today’s cardiac ultrasound equipment that allows physicians to accurately assess the physical state of arteries, veins and blood vessels by quickly detecting blood flow and direction.

CW Doppler ultrasound systems require analog beam forming (ABF) because the large dynamic range cannot be processed digitally. Historically, an ABF front-end consisted of multiple low-noise amplifiers, analog delay lines, and numerous cross-point switch matrices.

The dual-channel AD8333 alters this approach by replacing it with a programmable phase-shifting technique with an I/Q demodulator for each input channel, eliminating the need for multiple analog delay lines and cross-point switches.

The monolithic device achieves a dynamic range of 161 dB/Hz, which is equal to or exceeds the dynamic range of existing multi-chip solutions, while using less than 25% of the board space per channel and delivering a per-channel bill of materials savings of up to 75%.