8A-2 ULA-OP: A Novel ULtrasound Advanced Open Platform for Experimental Research

The experimental test of novel ultrasound (US) investigation methods is frequently made difficult by the lack of flexibility of commercial US machines and/or general purpose instruments available in research laboratories. In many cases, it is only possible to extract beamformed echo-signals from a "closed" US machine, for real-time data processing or acquisition by an external board. More flexibility is achieved in high-level platforms, but they are typically characterized by high cost and dimensions. This paper presents a novel portable US system, specifically developed for research purposes. The system design has been based on high-level commercial integrated circuits, to obtain the maximum flexibility with minimum of electronics. A preliminary example of application involving simultaneous B- mode and vector Doppler mode is discussed.

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