Texas Instruments’ new “Analog Front End” Chip will Reduce the Size of Ultrasound Equipment

The engineers at Texas Instruments have introduced a new technology that uses a new “analog front end” chip in its ultrasound equipment. The new chip plays a key role in delivering accurate ultrasound capabilities in a host of new locations, including ambulances, remote geographic areas and disaster sites.

By packing 30 and 40 components into a single electronic chip, this small yet powerful technology enables ultrasound equipment manufacturers to develop compact devices that shrink console-sized equipment into handheld units.

Not only can the analog front-end (AFE) chip cut the size of equipment by 70 percent, and reduce power usage by 40 percent, it also delivers good image quality. Like other AFE chips, the new product manages signals as they move through an ultrasound machine’s probe into its microprocessor. But this new device differs from its predecessors in size by incorporating eight 12-bit “analog-to-digital” converters; voltage controlled attenuators, 16 variable gain amplifiers, programmable gain amplifiers and anti-aliasing filters into a 9 x 9 mm chip.

Texas Instruments was able to reduce the size of the packaging by creating a new system architecture and eliminating the low-noise amplifier from the product. The new AFE5851 is the first 16 channel analog front end chip on the ultrasound market, and it is also the smallest and lowest-powered AFE currently available.

Going back just a few years, ultrasound equipment designers were still using large components, but the new AFE chip has placed 30 to 40 of these components into a single chip. In addition, this new device consumes only 39 mW per channel, while operating at an astounding 32.5 mega-samples per second.

Thanks to the new TI chip, healthcare professionals should begin to see a new breed of compact ultrasound machines with the portability to reach remote areas where larger console units could not be used. Its small size and low power draw will give ultrasound manufacturers a new target market to pursue.