A CMUT transceiver front-end with 100-V TX driver and 1-mW low-noise capacitive feedback RX amplifier in BCD-SOI technology

Author

Sautto, M. ; Leone, D. ; Savoia, A. ; Ghisu, D. ; Quaglia, Francesco ; Caliano, G. ; Mazzanti, Andrea

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Ing. Ind. e dell´Inf., Univ. di Pavia, Pavia, Italy

fYear

2014

fDate

22-26 Sept. 2014

Firstpage

407

Lastpage

410

Abstract

A CMUT front-end for high performance portable ultrasound medical imaging is proposed. Designed for CMUTs operating in the 1-15 MHz range, it comprises a 100-V TX driver, a high voltage T/R switch and an ultra-low-power RX amplifier. The impact of the large parasitic capacitances of high-voltage devices, responsible for SNR degradation, is minimized by careful design and dedicated circuit techniques while the RX amplifier exploits capacitive feedback to achieve a better noise-power performance than commonly adopted trans-resistance topologies. Electrical characterization as well as pulse-echo measurements are shown. The transceiver proves state-of-the-art noise performance and very high dynamic range with power dissipation of the RX amplifier of 1 mW only.

Keywords

biomedical imaging; biomedical ultrasonics; capacitive sensors; feedback amplifiers; microsensors; portable instruments; transceivers; ultrasonic imaging; ultrasonic transducers; BCD-SOI technology; CMUT transceiver front-end; SNR degradation; TX driver; capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers; circuit techniques; electrical characterization; frequency 1 MHz to 15 MHz; high performance portable ultrasound medical imaging; high voltage T/R switch; high-voltage devices; low-noise capacitive feedback RX amplifier; noise-power performance; parasitic capacitances; power 1 mW; pulse-echo measurements; trans-resistance topology; transceiver; ultra-low-power RX amplifier; voltage 100 V; Capacitance; Imaging; Noise; Switches; Transceivers; Transducers; Ultrasonic imaging;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

European Solid State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC), ESSCIRC 2014 - 40th

Conference_Location

Venice Lido

ISSN

1930-8833

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-5694-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ESSCIRC.2014.6942108

Filename

6942108