A tunable analog delay element for high-frequency dynamic beamforming

Abstract

Implementing beamforming for high frequency arrays is challenging because of the accurate delay requirements at high frequencies. High frequency digital beamforming is not suitable for catheter based applications as a large number of cables is required between the array and the external beamformer. A possible solution is to perform analog beamforming on an integrated circuit adjacent or monolithically integrated to the imaging array. In this study, we introduce an improved voltage in voltage out low pass filter as an analog delay cell for high frequency dynamic beamformers. This circuit can generate three times more delay with a given bandwidth when compared to conventional low pass filters. Delay of the circuit is tunable and the gain of the cell is inherently very close to unity. The proposed delay cell operates single ended and therefore is more suitable for CMUT operation which generates single ended output. We designed a test beamformer for a 30MHz, equal area, annular array with 100% bandwidth using the proposed delay cell and the unit-delay focusing architecture. Required delays are implemented using a delay line made up of improved delay elements with tunable delays. To demonstrate functionality we designed and fabricated a custom front-end IC in a 0.5µm standard CMOS process. The IC chip consists of 8 transimpedance amplifiers, voltage-to-current converters, the analog dynamic beamformer, and two buffers. We present results of preliminary imaging experiments that demonstrate the focusing capability.