A BiCMOS ultrasound front end signal processor for high temperature applications

Abstract

A mixed signal ASIC that implements an ultrasound front end receiver in a 0.6/spl mu/m BiCMOS HotASIC/spl reg/ technology is described. The ASIC includes a low noise amplifier (LNA), a programmable gain amplifier (PGA), an output differential amplifier (ODA), a second order sigma delta modulator (SDM) and is the most compact system for high temperature ultrasound applications reported in literature. The circuit has a programmable gain and is designed for measuring the signal response (200kHz to 700kHz) from an ultrasound transducer. At 48MHz clock frequency and 200/spl deg/C the power consumption is 85mW from a single 5V supply. The die area of the chip is 5.52 mm/sup 2/.