A low-cost 32-channel module with high-speed digital interfaces for portable ultrasound systems

There is a continuous trend towards small and portable ultrasound systems with multichannel processing. The objective of the work was to develop a modular acquisition and processing platform based on the following architecture principles: limited hardware processing, external high-speed data communication and software based on SAFT processing using embedded graphics processing unit (GPU). The acquisition module connected via PCIe or USB 3.0 interface can stream either raw RF data or demodulated ones. A low-power embedded PC with embedded GPU will implement ultrasound signal processing, as well as control and visualization functions. The performed feasibility study showed that AMD APU G-Series embedded x86 CPU+GPU is capable of real-time SAFT image reconstruction at limited resolution.