Open system for micro-ultrasound

Micro-ultrasound is able to delineate small structures with fine spatial resolution on the order of several tens of microns. It is an invaluable imaging tool for many clinical and preclinical applications. This paper presents the development of an open system for various biomedical studies. The system design was based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) embedded in a printed circuit board to achieve flexible imaging applications. The major image processing algorithms were achieved by the novel field programmable technology for high speed and flexibility. Real-time imaging processing was achieved by fast processing algorithms and high speed data transfer interface. Extensive tests including hardware, algorithms, tissue mimicking phantom, and tissue specimen measurements were conducted to demonstrate good performance of the system. Multi-modality imaging was also facilitated by the developed open system.