Transforming a device from something rolled around on a cart to something that fits in a pocket.

Wouldn’t it be nice if doctors could run all their scans and tests using just a few high-tech medical devices no bigger than a cellphone?

Actually one of the first examples of such technology is already here: an ultrasound scanner so small a doctor can carry it around in his or her pocket.

Working closely with medical imaging experts, TI focused on producing the semiconductor technology for an ultrasound scanner that could operate at a low enough power level to be handheld and untethered from a wall outlet.

• The goal from the start was to reduce the size and power consumption of the scanner’s analog front-end electronics, the traditionally power-hungry components that are responsible for capturing data and serving it up for digital processing.
• Engineers concluded they needed both a low-noise amplifier and low-power, high-performance analog-to-digital converters. But the two are manufactured with different chip-making technologies (BiCom3 and CMOS, to be precise). The team’s most important innovation was to use an advanced packaging technology to combine the amplifier and ADCs into a unified analog front-end package that could operate on the low power provided by batteries and yet deliver high-performance real-time imaging.
• The payoff: Both high image quality and low enough power consumption to enable portability, taking the scanner from a device that’s rolled around on a cart to something physicians might be forgiven for forgetting they had in their lab coat.

The resulting single-chip solution has also enabled smaller medical electronics companies to enter the portable ultrasound market, driving down the cost of scanners as well as the payment incurred by patients.

And as portable scanners become widespread they’ll no doubt find more and more uses: in the hands of ambulance crews at accident scenes, for example, and among health personnel in developing nations.