Ultrasound System: Portable

Block Diagram (SBD) for a portable ultrasound machine using TI’s TMS320 family of processors for beamforming, preprocessing, back-end processing tasks with interface to TI’s Analog Front Ends, pulsers, and output DAC’s.

Design Considerations
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Block Diagram

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Design Considerations

What's New

TI speeds ultrasound design and reduces board space by more than 50% with the TX810, the industry's first integrated transmit/receive switch

Similar to the fixed Ultrasound systems, portable ultrasound systems use an array of receivers to build an image by time shifting, scaling, and intelligently summing echo energy. However, the challenge with developing a portable system is maintaining a acceptable image quality while achieving portability in terms of size and runtime. Often this is accomplished by reducing the number of channels used in the device, trading off image quality and information for a reduction in power consumption and size.

The concept of time shifting and scaling, which is based on receiving signals from a transducer array, provides the ability to "focus" on a single point in the scan region. By subsequently focusing at different points, an image is assembled. Using more integrated solutions can help increase signal integrity and reliability. Using a HV pulsar which integrates the DAC, a low pass filter as well as an amplifier is an example of this, simplifying the filtering requirements and reducing the noise in the transmit signal chain. Likewise using the complete integrated analog portable ultrasound receive frontend reduces the noise and the number of components needed to support the channels used in the design.

Since the output is graphical in nature the use of a touch screen as an interface would allow for a large display while maximizing the use of space to ensure a smaller form factor. Using multiple TI DSPs like a C64XX coupled with an OMAP35XX would allow for a completely integrated backend. In addition to having a powerful core for video acceleration for the graphics display, a Cortex A8 processor will help to handle the management of the OS and touch screen interface which helps keep power consumption down by allowing for one of the processors to be powered down while not in use as well as eliminating another sub system. To compensate for the reduction of channels, post processing can be done to the image by delaying the image display while collecting more dada to render. This would give a more accurate image while trading off the ability to see the image in real-time as well as power consumption on the processor.

Power and Battery Management are key in this system, where key design considerations are ultra-low power consumption and high efficiency driven by the need for extended battery life, and high precision. Additional requirements may drive the need for recording the images, cabled or wireless interfaces for transmission of the images. Also, to enable ease of use, features like touch screen control and display backlighting are key to usability of the device. Adding all these features without significantly increasing power consumption is a huge challenge. Being a medical device it is also important to be able to monitor the amount of power left in the device. Texas Instruments portfolio of Processors, Instrumentation and Buffer Amplifiers, Power and Battery Management such as Impedance tracking and gas gauging, Audio Codecs, and both wired and wireless interface devices provides the ideal tool box for this system.

Application Notes (9)

Title	Abstract	Type	Size (KB)	Date	Views
Using TI's Embedded Processor Software Toolkit for Medical Imaging (MED-STK)	Read Abstract	HTM	9 KB	08 Jun 2010	965
Implementation of Affine Warp Using TI DSP	Read Abstract	HTM	8 KB	08 Jun 2010	495
Multicore Programming Guide (Rev. A)	Read Abstract	HTM	8 KB	30 Sep 2009	3085
EEPROM Emulation With the TMS320F28xxx DSCs	Read Abstract	HTM	9 KB	21 Sep 2009	3142
Ultrasound Scan Conversion on TI's C64x+ DSPs	Read Abstract	HTM	8 KB	03 Apr 2009	1493
Digital Signal Processor (DSP) for Portable Ultrasound (Rev. A)	Read Abstract	HTM	8 KB	18 Dec 2008	789
Efficient Implementation of Ultrasound Color Doppler Algorithms on TI C64x	Read Abstract	HTM	9 KB	07 Nov 2008	801
Flash Programming Solutions for the TMS320F28xxx DSCs	Read Abstract	HTM	8 KB	19 Aug 2008	4657
Interfacing SD/MMC Cards With TMS320F28xxx DSCs	Read Abstract	HTM	9 KB	26 Jul 2007	2106

Reference Designs

Description	Part #	Company
CC1101EM 315 and 433MHz Reference Design	CC1101EM433_REFDES	Texas Instruments
CC1101EM 868 and 915MHz Reference Design	CC1101EM868-915_REFDES	Texas Instruments
CC1110EM 315MHz Reference Design	CC1110EM315_REFDES	Texas Instruments
CC1110EM 433MHz Reference Design	CC1110EM433_REFDES	Texas Instruments

Selection and Solution Guides

Selection Guides (4)

Title	Type	Size (KB)	Date	Views
Tri-fold High-Speed and Data Converter literature	PDF	620 KB	03 Jun 2011	3426
Medical Applications Guide 2010 (Rev. E)	PDF	11.6 MB	05 Aug 2010	6555
Medical Imaging Applications Guide (Rev. A)	PDF	5.7 MB	05 Aug 2010	2027
Texas Instruments Embedded Processors for Medical Imaging (Rev. B)	PDF	2.38 MB	08 Jun 2010	2176

Product Bulletin & White Papers

Product Bulletin (2)

Title	Abstract	Type	Size (MB)	Date	Views
TMS320C6670 Breakthrough Performance for Process-Intensive Applications (Rev. B)		PDF	228 KB	09 Jun 2011	1323
TMS320C6671/72/74/78 High-Performance Multicore Fixed- and Floating-Point DSPs (Rev. B)		PDF	208 KB	25 Apr 2011	3909

White Papers (12)

Title	Abstract	Type	Size (MB)	Date	Views
Maximizing Multicore Efficiency with Navigator Runtime		PDF	914 KB	23 Feb 2012	1158
An overview of TI's Multicore Software Development Kit (Rev. A)		PDF	1014 KB	17 May 2011	2287
Real-Time Ultrasound Elastography on a Multicore DSP		PDF	1.45 MB	16 Mar 2011	781
Software-Based Ultrasound Phase Rotation Beamforming on Multicore DSP		PDF	793 KB	16 Mar 2011	878
Software-Based Ultrasound Beamforming on Multicore DSPs		PDF	1.69 MB	06 Mar 2011	1092
KeyStone Memory Architecture White Paper (Rev. A)		PDF	562 KB	21 Dec 2010	1360
TI's new C66x Fixed- and Floating-Point DSP Core Conquers the 'Need for Speed'		PDF	423 KB	09 Nov 2010	1099
Multicore processors bring innovation to portable medical imaging systems		PDF	333 KB	08 Jun 2010	889
Accelerating the advancement of medical imaging		PDF	358 KB	18 Mar 2009	36
Signal Processing Overview of Ultrasound Systems for Medical Imaging-White Paper	Read Abstract	HTM	9 KB	11 Nov 2008	2083
The future of medical imaging		PDF	115 KB	03 Nov 2008	819
See the difference:DSPs in medical imaging		PDF	187 KB	31 Oct 2008	875

News Releases & Authored Articles

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Support and Community

Training & Events

Name	Type	Available During
Multicore Software Development Kit (MCSDK) Online Training This self-paced training course provides an introduction to the various components that make up the C66x KeyStone devices.	On-Line Training	On Demand
Texas Instruments' Training Lab - ARM Tech Conference 2010 This self-paced training course provides an introduction to the various components that make up the C66x KeyStone devices.	On-Line Training	On Demand
TI's C553x DSPs - industry's lowest price and lowest power DSPs TI's breakthrough price for DSPS extends sophisticated signal processing and ultra-low-power into new world of cost-sensitive apps	On-Line Training	On Demand
C66x Multicore SOC Online Training for KeyStone Devices This self-paced training course provides an introduction to the various components that make up the C66x KeyStone devices	On-Line Training	On Demand
Sensor Signal Conditioning and Interface for Medical Explore the various sensor interface techniques and solutions available for medical applications.	On-Line Training	On Demand

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