Work

An ultrasound imaging system exploiting transducers and multiplexers on a flexible substrate together with a log-delta CMOS ADC

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Ultrasound (US) imaging is a fundamental tool in healthcare for the diagnosis of diverse conditions. Wearable, flexible ultrasound patches could expand the scope of US imaging to continuous, at-home monitoring without professional intervention, but require scaling to large numbers of transducer elements. This poses challenges in interconnect density, power consumption, and data bandwidth. To improve interconnect density, we present the first integration of flexible ultrasound transducers with flexible a-IGZO thin-film transistor (TFT) multiplexing electronics. In the Si CMOS readout chip, a new circuit technique cuts front-end power, while a log-delta ADC compresses data efficiently. Our system achieves an 8× reduction in required front-end circuitry and a 42% decrease in front-end power. The data needed to describe the ultrasound image are reduced five-fold, decreasing data transmission power by the same factor. These advances bring the vision of wearable high-density, large-area ultrasound imaging patches for monitoring one step closer.

Source: npj Flexible Electronics

DOI: 10.1038/s41528-025-00478-5

Authors: Martijn Timmermans, Kyle van Oosterhout, Marco Fattori, Paul van Neer, Pieter Harpe, Eugenio Cantatore

Institutions: Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research

Language: English

Topic: Analog and Mixed-Signal Circuit Design

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $4,090