Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging System With Beamforming on Single FPGA

Ultrafast ultrasound imaging technologies, such as ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) and functional ultrasound (FUS), are gaining significant attention in the ultrasound field, driving the demand for higher frame rates in open ultrasound systems. However, current open ultrasound systems face the challenge of balancing high imaging frame rates with the complexity of hardware architecture. This work reports the detailed implementation and hardware architecture of a 128-channel ultrafast ultrasound platform based on a single field-programmable gate array (FPGA). This platform connects the ultrasound card to a personal computer (PC) via peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) 3.0, providing excellent compatibility. The platform uses custom instructions to implement flexible parameter configuration in the FPGA. It can control the transmission and reception of signals, the output of raw or beamformed RF data, and the sampling depth. Additionally, a 64 sub-aperture delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformer within the FPGA is implemented in the platform. This beamformer gives output as a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$128\times 2048$ </tex-math></inline-formula> image at 10000 frames/s (fps) using plane wave. The core components of the platform measure only <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$12\times 21$ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm, achieving a compact design while delivering high-frame-rate (HFR) imaging.