An Open-Source Ultrasound Imaging System with Wearable Active Probes

Many emerging ultrasound-based imaging modalities depend on operation in the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. This paper describes a compact and wearable autonomous ultrasound imaging system for such applications. The system uses a 64-element wearable active probe design with onboard high voltage (HV) multiplexers, transmit/receive switches, and pre-amplifiers for improving SNR of the received echoes. The analog front-end is implemented as a custom transceiver board, while a miniaturized system-on-chip (SoC) platform is used to implement the digital back-end. Built-in high-efficiency switching power converters enable operation from a single 12 V battery. The improved functionality and power efficiency of the system is confirmed through simulations and measurements.