AFE5816

The AFE5816 is a highly-integrated, analog front-end (AFE) solution specifically designed for ultrasound systems where high performance, low power, and small size are required.

The AFE5816 is an integrated analog front-end (AFE) optimized for medical ultrasound application. The AFE5816 is a multichip module (MCM) device with two dies: VCA and ADC_CONV. Each die has total of 16 channels.

Each channel in the VCA die can be configured in two modes: time gain compensation (TGC) mode and continuous wave (CW) mode. In TGC mode, each channel includes an input attenuator (ATTEN), a low-noise amplifier (LNA) with variable-gain, and a third-order, low-pass filter (LPF). The attenuator supports an attenuation range of 8dB to 0dB, and the LNA supports gain ranges from 14dB to 45dB. The LPF cutoff frequency can be configured at 10MHz, 15MHz, 20MHz, or 25MHz to support ultrasound applications with different frequencies. In CW mode, each channel includes an LNA with a fixed gain of 18dB, and a low-power passive mixer with 16 selectable phase delays. Different phase delays can be applied to each analog input signal to perform an on-chip beamforming operation. A harmonic filter in the CW mixer suppresses the third and fifth harmonic to enhance the sensitivity of the CW Doppler measurement. CW mode supports three clock modes: 16X, 8X, and 4X.

Each channel of the ADC_CONV die has a high-performance analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with a programmable resolution of 14 bits or 12 bits. The ADC achieves 75dBFS signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in 14-bit mode, and 72dBFS SNR in 12-bit mode. This ADC provides excellent SNR at low-channel gain. The devices operate at maximum speeds of 65 MSPS and 80 MSPS, providing 14-bit and 12-bit output, respectively. The ADC is designed to scale power with sampling rate. The output interface of the ADC is a low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) interface that can easily interface with low-cost field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).

The AFE5816 also allows various power and noise combinations to be selected for optimizing system performance. Therefore, these devices are suitable ultrasound AFE solutions for systems with strict battery-life requirements. The AFE5816 is available in a 15mm × 15mm NFBGA-289 package (ZAV package, S-PBGA-N289) and is specified for operation from –40°C to +85°C. The device is also pin-to-pin compatible with the AFE5818 family.