ULA-OP 256: A portable high-performance research scanner

In the past few years, open scanners have rapidly advanced to offer a variety of solutions to ultrasound researchers. Each system presents specific performance in terms of number of channels, flexibility, processing power and raw data storage capability. This paper describes the 256-channel ULtrasound Advanced Open Platform (ULA-OP 256), designed to provide high performance in a small size. The high-speed interconnection of multiple front-end boards allows the direct and complete control of all transmit (TX) and receive (RX) waveforms. Up to 80 GB of RX data can be stored in the on-board DDR3 memory, while high real-time computational power (equivalent to 2500 GFLOP) is guaranteed by the available digital signal processors. The system implements a massive parallel multi-line beamformer in order to speed up the acquisition in high frame rate imaging techniques. This will enable imaging rates up to 4000 fps, depending on the image frame size.

[1]  Mickael Tanter,et al.  Ultrafast imaging in biomedical ultrasound , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control.

[2]  Piero Tortoli,et al.  Comparison of carotid artery blood velocity measurements by vector and standard Doppler approaches. , 2015, Ultrasound in medicine & biology.

[3]  Piero Tortoli,et al.  High-frame-rate 2-D vector blood flow imaging in the frequency domain , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control.

[4]  Donal B. Downey,et al.  Three-dimensional ultrasound imaging , 1995, Medical Imaging.

[5]  Piero Tortoli,et al.  Real-time vector velocity assessment through multigate doppler and plane waves , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control.

[6]  O. Basset,et al.  Fundamental and second-harmonic ultrasound field computation of inhomogeneous nonlinear medium with a generalized angular spectrum method , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[7]  P. Tortoli,et al.  An automatic angle tracking procedure for feasible vector Doppler blood velocity measurements. , 2010, Ultrasound in medicine & biology.

[8]  P. Tortoli,et al.  Compact hardware for real-time multi-line beamforming , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium.

[9]  B. Savord,et al.  Fully sampled matrix transducer for real time 3D ultrasonic imaging , 2003, IEEE Symposium on Ultrasonics, 2003.

[10]  Piero Tortoli,et al.  Design of Optimal 2-D Nongrid Sparse Arrays for Medical Ultrasound , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[11]  O. Basset,et al.  Frequency-domain-based strain estimation and high-frame-rate imaging for quasi-static elastography , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[12]  Piero Tortoli,et al.  Density-tapered spiral arrays for ultrasound 3-D imaging , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control.

[13]  A. Dallai,et al.  A reconfigurable and programmable FPGA-based system for nonstandard ultrasound methods , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.