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TI’s Receive Signal Chain Demonstration Kit Simplifies Ultrasound Designs

2nd August 2006

ES Admin

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Texas Instruments Incorporated introduced today an easy-to-use, high-performance ultrasound signal chain demonstration kit that speeds time to market and lowers cost by cutting development time for ultrasound equipment. The demonstration kit provides a complete, eight-channel analog receive signal chain enabling users to process signals from the output of the probe through a high-performance variable gain amplifier and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for rapid prototyping in beam-forming applications.

The TUS5000 evaluation module (EVM) was designed to interface four two-channel VCA2615 variable gain amplifiers with the eight-channel ADS5272 serialized LVDS-output ADC. A high-performance clock synchronizer and jitter cleaner, the CDCM7005, provides the 65-MHz clock to the ADS5272 with a bypass option available. Designers can simply apply their real world input circuitry, such as an ultrasound probe, to the EVM to quickly evaluate the performance of TI’s analog receive chain solution. The EVM also allows customers to analyze the outputs through their digital beam former for more complete prototyping.

The combination of the highly-integrated VCA2615, ADS5272 and CDCM7005 on a single board demonstrates TI’s ability to reduce system size while increasing channel count and performance. The ADS5272 ADC and VCA2615 amplifier offer best-in-class noise performance at 71.1 dBFS signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and 0.7 nV/rtHz, respectively, providing better imaging quality to the end user. With a combined power per channel of 277 mW, the VCA2615 and ADS5272 are well-suited for portable, midrange and high-performance ultrasound applications. By using the on-board MSP430 microcontroller, designers can take advantage of the programmability of the VCA2615, making it easier to examine the high performance under a number of ultrasound probe input conditions.

Designers who use the TUS5000EVM kit as the basis for a reference design can enjoy one-stop shopping and take full advantage of TI’s systems expertise and complete array of products, tools and technical support for high-speed designs.

A deserialiser such as TI’s ADSDESER-50EVM, is necessary in order to convert the serial LVDS outputs of the ADS5272 to parallel data for a complete evaluation.

Pricing and Availability
The TUS5000EVM is available today from TI. The price of $299 includes the EVM and User’s Guide. The ADSDESER-50EVM is also available today from TI. The price of $399 includes the EVM, datasheet and User’s Guide.