Architecture of single substrate ultrasonic imaging devices, related apparatuses, and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9476969-B2
Application number	US-201514940837-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 13, 2015
Priority date	Apr 18, 2014
Publication date	Oct 25, 2016
Grant date	Oct 25, 2016

Abstract

Aspects of the technology described herein relate to ultrasound device circuitry as may form part of a single substrate ultrasound device having integrated ultrasonic transducers. The ultrasound device circuitry may facilitate the generation of ultrasound waveforms in a manner that is power- and data-efficient.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a plurality of ultrasound transmission units; and
a delay mesh circuitry configured to output to the plurality of ultrasound transmission units a plurality of time-delayed versions of a single delay mesh circuitry input signal,
wherein the delay mesh circuitry comprises at least a first delay unit and a second delay unit, wherein the first and second delay units are interconnected such that the first delay unit is configured to receive an input signal from and provide an output signal to the second delay unit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
a substrate,
wherein the plurality of ultrasound transmission units is integrated with the substrate.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the delay mesh circuitry is integrated with the substrate.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , further comprising:
a waveform generator integrated with the substrate and configured to generate an initial waveform,
encoding circuitry integrated with the substrate, coupled to at least one output of the waveform generator, and configured to encode the initial waveform to produce the single delay mesh circuitry input signal, and
wherein the plurality of ultrasound transmission units comprises:
decoding circuitry configured to decode the plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal to produce a plurality of decoded waveforms, and
a plurality of ultrasonic transducers configured to generate an ultrasound field at least in part by concurrently transmitting ultrasound signals corresponding to the plurality of decoded waveforms.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the substrate comprises a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) substrate.

6. The apparatus of claim 2 , further comprising:
a waveform generator integrated with the substrate and having an output coupled to an input of encoding circuitry; and
the encoding circuitry integrated with the substrate and having an output coupled to an input of the delay mesh circuitry.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the encoding circuitry is further configured to:
generate the single delay mesh circuitry input signal at least in part by encoding a single waveform generated by the waveform generator; and
output the single delay mesh circuitry input signal to the delay mesh circuitry.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of ultrasound transmission units comprises a plurality of decoding circuits and a plurality of ultrasonic transducers, each of the plurality of ultrasound transmission units comprising at least one of the plurality of decoding circuits and at least one of the plurality of ultrasonic transducers.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein at least one of the plurality of decoding circuits is configured to decode at least one of the plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal to obtain a plurality of decoded waveforms.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is configured to generate an ultrasound field at least in part by transmitting ultrasound signals corresponding to the plurality of decoded waveforms.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is further configured to generate the ultrasound field by transmitting ultrasound signals corresponding to two or more of the plurality of decoded waveforms in parallel.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is configured to generate an ultrasound field having azimuthal symmetry by transmitting ultrasound signals obtained based on the plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is configured to generate an ultrasound field having elevation symmetry by transmitting ultrasound signals obtained based on the plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is configured to generate an ultrasound field having cylindrical symmetry by transmitting ultrasound signals obtained based on the plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is configured to generate an ultrasound field having spherical symmetry by transmitting ultrasound signals obtained based on the plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is configured to generate a plane wave ultrasound field by transmitting ultrasound signals obtained based on the plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the delay mesh circuitry is programmable.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the delay mesh circuitry is reconfigurable.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the delay mesh circuitry is further configured to:
in response to input of a first delay mesh control signal, output to the plurality of ultrasound transmission units the plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal; and
in response to input of a second delay mesh control signal different from the first delay mesh control signal, output to the plurality of ultrasound transmission units a second plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal,
wherein the plurality of time-delayed versions of the delay mesh circuitry input signal is different from the second plurality of time delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of ultrasound transmission units comprises a plurality of decoding circuits and a plurality of ultrasonic transducers, each of the plurality of ultrasound transmission units comprising at least one of the plurality of decoding circuits and at least one of the plurality of ultrasonic transducers.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the plurality of decoding circuits is configured to decode the plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal to obtain a first plurality of decoded waveforms and is further configured to decode the second plurality of time-delayed versions of the single delay mesh circuitry input signal to obtain a second plurality of decoded waveforms.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is configured to generate a first ultrasound field at least in part by transmitting ultrasound signals corresponding to the first plurality of decoded waveforms and to generate a second ultrasound field at least in part by transmitting ultrasound signals corresponding to the second plurality of decoded waveforms, wherein the first ultrasound field is a different type of field than the second ultrasound field.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus consists of fewer waveform generators than ultrasound transmission units.

24. A delay circuit configured to receive an input waveform and generate a plurality of output waveforms, the delay circuit comprising:
a delay circuit controller configured to output a control signal; and
a plurality of interconnected delay units, at least one of the pl

Assignees

• Butterfly Network Inc

Inventors

• Rothberg Jonathan M
• Ralston Tyler S
• Sanchez Nevada J
• Casper Andrew J

Classifications

• G01S7/52019 Primary

  Details of transmitters · CPC title

• G01S7/52017

  particularly adapted to short-range imaging (G01S7/53 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H03K2005/00019

  Variable delay · CPC title

• G01S15/8925

  the array being a two-dimensional transducer configuration, i.e. matrix or orthogonal linear arrays · CPC title

• G10K11/346

  using phase variation · CPC title