256 Channel Ultrasound Image Processing

Diagnostic Sonography, more commonly known as Ultrasound, has become a routine part of medical diagnostic imaging and synonymous with pregnancy care. Ultrasound allows doctors to non-invasively visualize internal tissues in the body, without exposing the patient to radiation or injecting radiocontrast agents. This makes ultrasound the preferred diagnostic imaging technique in all sensitive care situations.

Today, ultrasound is moving towards higher resolution images, which can be displayed in 3D or 4D, and can displayed in real time. This requires not only the ability to connect to more transducer channels simultaneously, but also higher performance processing to process more frames per second, giving doctors and ultrasound operators clearer pictures into the body than ever before. Also, these systems have to do this at lower cost and lower power.

AMD solutions allow ultrasound designers the ability to build next generation Uutrasound systems that can image deeper, produce real time 4D images at lower cost while using less power.

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Analog Front End

Communicating with Analog Front Ends (AFE) can be challenging, with I/O and bandwidth limitations, channel synchronization issues and power concerns. AMD and its AMD Alliance Program Members deliver innovative techniques to simply AFE connectivity congestion and help connect to more channels simultaneously through AMD transceivers and protocols, for example, JESD204B. The benefits for AFE communication over JESD204B on AMD transceivers include:

  • More AFE Channels on fewer lanes (8 or 16 Channels per Transceiver)
  • Increased bandwidth for reading more channels simultaneously
  • Simplified PCB layout from traditional LVDS
  • Easier Channel and Octal alignment with AMD transceiver’s built-in channel bonding
  • Lower power per Octal

Back End Processing

Ultrasound image processing is not as simple as it used to be when Ultrasound only produced grainy low res 2D images. Today’s high resolution 3D/4D images require higher performance devices to reconstruct ltrasound images in real time, and be able to build these reconstruction algorithms and techniques in software languages like C or OpenCL.

Pioneering FPGA technology by AMD is unmatched in this ability to accelerate software based algorithms for ultrasound image reconstruction. With AMD, ultrasound can achieve new depths of scanning and image quality than before.

The AMD Vitis™ unified software platform allows algorithm developers the ability to completely develop in C/OpenCL and be able to compile to COTS platforms featuring AMD devices for ultimate real-time processing, without having to covert to RTL or design a platform. The benefits for AMD and Vitis software platform include:

  • Real time processing of ultrasound images in 2D/3D/4D
  • Software based development languages, such as C, C++ and OpenCL
  • COTS platforms for plug and play rapid prototyping and deployment

Platforms that are built to be reliable and serve over 10 years in an ultrasound system Flexible AMD FPGA fabric that can enable the lowest latency from scan to image viewing

IP & Reference Designs

Name Function Availability Device Family Support Provider
JESD204B High Speed Interface High Speed Connectivity Now Series 7 and beyond AMD
JESD204B Reference Designs Reference Design Now Series 7 and beyond Partners
ArrayFire C/OpenCL Libraries Software Optimized Libraries Soon Series 7 and beyond Partners
Vitis unified software platform Software based Development Tool Now Series 7 and beyond AMD