Dynamically reconfigurable analog front-end for ultrasonic imaging applications

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.