Ultrasound receivers are frequently exposed to overload conditions during B-mode and pulsed Doppler operation. These conditions can saturate the amplifiers and/or the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) within the receive amplifier-front-end (AFE) signal chain. An ultrasound receiver with poor overload recovery characteristics can greatly complicate design, significantly reduce image quality, and lengthen time-to-market. This article reviews ultrasound system design challenges with regard to overload recovery, and presents a new approach to address this issue.
The Ultrasound System
Ultrasound has a wide range of medical applications, including imaging, blood flow measurement, cancerous lesion detection, bone densitometry, and needle or catheter guidance.