ASICs for ultrasonic array driving

The aim of the project described is to produce a high resolution hand-held ultrasonic scanner. The transducer elements use PVDF polymer technology. The control electronics are being designed within the Electronic Engineering department. A major objective is to reduce the size of the circuitry such that the driving components are mounted as close as possible to the transducer elements. This minimises the parasitic capacitances, which adversely affect the overall performance. This article describes the methods employed to achieve the required size reduction, and in particular a novel pulse timing ASIC designed by the authors. The device is intended to have a resolution of 1ns while still employing cheap and low power ES2 CMOS technology