A sigma-delta-based sparse synthetic aperture beamformer for real-time 3-D ultrasound

Sigma-delta (ΣΔ) modulation allows delay resolution in ultrasound beamformers to be achieved by simple clock cycle delays applied to the undecimated bitstream, greatly reducing the complexity of the signal processing and the number of bits in the datapath. The simplifications offered by this technique have the potential for low power and portable operation in advanced systems such as 3-D and color Doppler imagers. In this paper, an architecture for a portable, real-time, 3-D sparse synthetic aperture ultrasound beamformer based on ΣΔ modulation is presented, and its simulated performance is analyzed. Specifically, with a 65-element linear phased array and three transmit events, this architecture is shown to achieve a 1.1° beamwidth, a -54-dB secondary lobe level, and a theoretical frame rate of 1700 frames/s at λ/64 delay resolution using a second-order low pass ΣΔ modulator. Finally, a technique for modifying the proposed multi-beam architecture to allow improved analog-to-digital (A/D) resolution by premodulating the input signal for bandpass ΣΔ modulation is also presented