MSc P. Guo

1. A 2000-volumes/s 3-D Ultrasound Probe With Monolithically-Integrated 23 $\times$ 23-mm2 4096-Element CMUT Array
   Rozsa, Nuriel N. M.; Chen, Zhao; Kim, Taehoon; Guo, Peng; Hopf, Yannick M.; Voorneveld, Jason; dos Santos, Djalma Simoes; Noothout, Emile; Chang, Zu-Yao; Chen, Chao; Henneken, Vincent A.; de Jong, Nico; Vos, Hendrik J.; Bosch, Johan G.; Verweij, Martin D.; Pertijs, Michiel A. P.;
   IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits,
   pp. 1--14, 2025. early access. DOI: 10.1109/JSSC.2025.3534087
   
   Abstract: ...

   This article presents a 4096-element ultrasound probe for high volume-rate (HVR) cardiovascular imaging. The probe consists of two application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), each of which interfaces with a 2048-element monolithically-integrated capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducer (CMUT) array. The probe can image a 60∘ × 60∘ × 10-cm volume at 2000 volumes/s, the highest volume-rate with in-probe channel-count reduction reported to date. It uses 2 × 2 delay-and-sum micro-beamforming (μBF) and 2× time-division multiplexing (TDM) to achieve an 8× receive (RX) channel-count reduction. Equalization, trained using a pseudorandom bit-sequence generated on the chip, reduces TDM-induced crosstalk by 10 dB, enabling power-efficient scaling of the cable drivers. The ASICs also implement a novel transmit (TX) beamformer (BF) that operates as a programmable digital pipeline, which enables steering of arbitrary pulse-density modulated (PDM) waveforms. The TX BF drives element-level 65 V unipolar pulsers, which in turn drive the CMUT array. Both the TX BF and RX μBF are programmed with shift-registers (SRs) that can either be programmed in a row-column fashion for fast upload times, or daisy-chain fashion for a higher flexibility. The layout of the ASICs is matched to the 365-μm-pitch monolithically-integrated CMUT array. While operating, the RX and logic power consumption per element is 0.85 and 0.10 mW, respectively. TX power consumption is highly waveform dependent, but is nominally 0.34 mW. Compared to the prior art, the probe has the highest volume rate, and features among the largest imaging arrays (both in terms of element-count and aperture) with a high flexibility in defining the TX waveform. These properties make it a suitable option for applications requiring HVR imaging of a large region of interest.

2. A Single-Inductor-Based High-Voltage Transmit Beamformer for Wearable Ultrasound Devices Achieving 88\% $fCV^2$ Power Reduction
   Peng Guo; Zu-Yao Chang; Michiel A. P. Pertijs; Tiago L. Costa;
   In Dig. Techn. Papers IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC),
   February 2025. accepted.

3. A 125μm-Pitch-Matched Transceiver ASIC with Micro-Beamforming ADC and Multi-Level Signaling for 3-D Transfontanelle Ultrasonography
   Peng Guo; Fabian Fool; Zu-Yao Chang; Emile Noothout; Hendrik J. Vos; Johan G. Bosch; Nico de Jong; Martin D. Verweij; Michiel A. P. Pertijs;
   IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits,
   Volume 59, Issue 8, pp. 2604--2617, August 2024. DOI: 10.1109/JSSC.2024.3355854
   
   Abstract: ...

   This article presents a pitch-matched transceiver application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for a wearable ultrasound device intended for transfontanelle ultrasonography, which includes element-level 20-V unipolar pulsers with transmit (TX) beamforming, and receive (RX) circuitry that combines eightfold multiplexing, four-channel micro-beamforming (μBF), and subgroup-level digitization to achieve an initial 32-fold channel-count reduction. The μBF is based on passive boxcar integration, merged with a 10-bit 40 MS/s SAR ADC in the charge domain, thus obviating the need for explicit anti-alias filtering (AAF) and power-hungry ADC drivers. A compact and low-power reference generator employs an area-efficient MOS capacitor as a reservoir to quickly set a reference for the ADC in the charge domain. A low-power multi-level data link, based on 16-level pulse-amplitude modulation, concatenates the outputs of four ADCs, providing an overall 128-fold channel-count reduction. A prototype transceiver ASIC was fabricated in a 180-nm BCD technology, and interfaces with a 2-D PZT transducer array of 16×16 elements with a pitch of 125 μm and a center frequency of 9 MHz. The ASIC consumes 1.83 mW/element. The data link achieves an aggregate 3.84 Gb/s data rate with 3.3 pJ/bit energy efficiency. The ASIC’s functionality has been demonstrated through electrical, acoustic, and imaging experiments.

4. Pitch-Matched Integrated Circuits for Ultrasound Transducer Arrays
   Pertijs, Michiel; Hopf, Yannick; Guo, Peng;
   In Imaging Sensors, Power Management, PLLs and Frequency Synthesizers ‐ Advances in Analog Circuit Design,
   Springer Science \& Business Media, December 2024. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-71559-4_1
   
   Abstract: ...

   While medical imaging using ultrasound is an established field, technical advances are enabling a range of new-use cases and associated new ultrasound imaging devices. Examples include catheters capable of providing real-time 3D images to guide minimally invasive interventions and wearable devices for new monitoring and diagnostic applications. In contrast with conventional probes, which contain little or no electronics, these new devices need to become “smart”: integrated circuits need to be integrated into the probe to interface in a pitch-matched fashion with the many transducer elements (typically 1000+) needed for real-time 3D imaging. This chapter discusses the challenges associated with the design of such pitch-matched integrated circuits, focusing on strategies for channel-count reduction, beamforming, and digitization. The chapter includes a case study of a state-of-the-art catheter-based design for high-frame-rate 3D intracardiac imaging.

5. A 2000-Volumes/s 3D Ultrasound Imaging Chip with Monolithically-Integrated 11.7x23.4mm² 2048-Element CMUT Array and Arbitrary-Wave TX Beamformer
   Nuriel M. Rozsa; Zhao Chen; Taehoon Kim; Peng Guo; Yannick Hopf; Jason Voorneveld; Djalma Simoes dos Santos; Emile Noothout; Zu-Yao Chang; Chao Chen; Vincent A. Henneken; Nico de Jong; Hendrik J. Vos; Johan G. Bosch; Martin D. Verweij; Michiel A. P. Pertijs;
   In Dig. Techn. Paper IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits (VLSI),
   IEEE, pp. 1--2, June 2024. DOI: 10.1109/VLSITechnologyandCir46783.2024.10631363

6. A 3D Ultrasound Probe with Monolithically-Integrated 4096-Element CMUT Array Imaging 60° x 60° x 10cm at 2000 Volumes/s
   Nuriel N. M. Rozsa; Zhao Chen; Taehoon Kim; Peng Guo; Yannick Hopf; Jason Voorneveld; Djalma Simoes dos Santos; Emile Noothout; Zu-Yao Chang; Chao Chen; Vincent A. Henneken; Nico de Jong; Hendrik J. Vos; Johan G. Bosch; Martin D. Verweij; Michiel A. P. Pertijs;
   In Annual Workshop on Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing (ProRISC),
   July 2024.

7. A 3D Ultrasound Probe with Monolithically-Integrated 4096-Element CMUT Array Imaging 60° x 60° x 10cm at 2000 Volumes/s
   Nuriel N. M. Rozsa; Zhao Chen; Taehoon Kim; Peng Guo; Yannick Hopf; Jason Voorneveld; Djalma Simoes dos Santos; Emile Noothout; Zu-Yao Chang; Chao Chen; Vincent A. Henneken; Nico de Jong; Hendrik J. Vos; Johan G. Bosch; Martin D. Verweij; Michiel A. P. Pertijs;
   In Proc. IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS),
   IEEE, September 2024. abstract, Best Student Paper Award.

8. A Pitch-matched Low-noise Analog Front-end with Accurate Continuous Time-gain Compensation for High-density Ultrasound Transducer Arrays
   Peng Guo; Zu-Yao Chang; Emile Noothout; Hendrik J. Vos; Johan G. Bosch; Nico de Jong; Martin D. Verweij; Michiel A. P. Pertijs;
   IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits,
   Volume 58, Issue 6, pp. 1693--1705, June 2023. DOI: 10.1109/jssc.2022.3200160

9. A 1.2 mW/Channel Pitch-Matched Transceiver ASIC Employing a Boxcar-Integration-Based RX Micro-Beamformer for High-Resolution 3-D Ultrasound Imaging
   Peng Guo; Fabian Fool; Zu-Yao Chang; Emile Noothout; Hendrik J. Vos; Johan G. Bosch; Nico de Jong; Martin D. Verweij; Michiel A. P. Pertijs;
   IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits,
   Volume 58, Issue 9, pp. 2607--2618, September 2023. DOI: 10.1109/jssc.2023.3271270

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