The Design of an Efficient Low-Cost FPGA-based Unit for Generation Ultrasound Beamforming

Abstract

One of the most critical steps in forming an ultrasound image is beamforming, which determines the nature and shape of the sound waves produced. It allows for generating either sound waves focused on a specific depth in the area to be explored (focused beam) or plane waves. The control of the piezoelectric elements forming the probe causes the difference between these modes. In this paper, we focus on generating the commands for the beamforming transmission for both focused and plane wave techniques. The produced signals of the command were applied to the transducers to achieve the desired sound beam. Eventually, we design and implement the algorithm using a low-cost AlTera DE10-lite development board. The results show that despite not optimizing the hardware, the board was able to generate the necessary signals efficiently with less than 4% as logic elements requirement and used memory of 0% in the most complex and demanding scenario. Given the speed of access they present, we replace the use of memory with registers.