TI introduces the first 16-channel medical ultrasound AFE families, enabling maximum system efficiency

Integration delivers high performance while minimizing system power, cost and size

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Nov 05, 2015, 08:00 ET

TI introduces the first 16-channel medical ultrasound AFE families, enabling maximum system efficiency

DALLAS, Nov. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Health care diagnostic imaging devices, from customary prenatal care to advanced cardiac imaging equipment, are increasingly expected to provide more precise images, while also becoming more portable. To meet these demands, Texas Instruments (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today introduced the AFE5818 and AFE5816 families, the industry's first 16-channel ultrasound analog front ends (AFEs). The new AFEs integrate a range of features to maximize image quality and performance while minimizing power consumption and system cost. For more information about these devices, see www.ti.com/afe5818-pr.

To optimize system efficiency, these families offer multiple versions with and without a demodulation block and JESD204B interface option, which further simplifies board layout and provides cost savings. The new families also offer industry-leading low power consumption for the noise performance achieved, enabling portable solutions that offer better imaging performance without negatively impacting the power budget.

Key features and benefits of the AFE5818 and AFE5816 families

Highest integration: The AFE5818 and AFE5816 families are the industry's first 16-channel simultaneously sampling AFEs, enabling system-level optimization.
Minimal power consumption: The AFE5818 and AFE5816 offer power consumption as low as 94 mW and 52 mW per channel, respectively — 33 percent better per channel than the competition.
JESD204B interface: The AFE58JD18 and AFE58JD16 include a 5-Gbps JESD204B serial interface, reducing ultrasound system data I/O routing by as much as 80 percent compared to other data interface standards and enabling a data rate of up to 6.4 Gbps. This standard interface creates a seamless connection to high-performance processors such as TI's 66AK2L06 multicore processor.
Digital time gain compensation (DTGC): The AFE58JD16 and AFE5816 include a DTGC engine with 0.125-dB resolution, which reduces noise and power consumption. DTGC also reduces the need for external components, compared to traditional analog time gain compensation.
Digital demodulator: The AFE58JD18 and AFE58JD16 also feature an on-chip digital demodulator, which conditions 16 channels of data from RF to a baseband frequency. This reduces the load on the system processing engine to enable lower latency and higher image quality.

Complementing the AFE5818 and AFE5816 families is TI's ADS52J90, a new 16-channel high-speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that can be configured for up to 32 inputs, for ultrasound receiver designs that require greater front end design flexibility. The ADC also offers the on-chip digital demodulator for reducing processor or FPGA costs, as well as a low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) or JESD204B serial interface for faster data rates.

Tools and support to speed design
TI offers evaluation modules (EVMs) for the AFE5818, AFE5816 and ADS52J90 families for quick and easy evaluation. The AFE5818EVM, AFE58JD18EVM and AFE58JD16EVM are priced at US$599, and the ADS52J90EVM is priced at $1,249. All EVMs are available from the TI store and authorized distributors.

The AFE5818/AFE58JD18 and AFE5816/AFE58JD16 devices offer IBIS models, while the ADS52J90 is supported by an anti-aliasing calculation tool for ADCs as well as an operational amplifier to ADC circuit topology calculator, which are available on ti.com.

Support is available in the TI E2E^™ Community Medical Forum, where engineers can search for solutions, get help, share knowledge and solve problems with fellow engineers and TI experts.

Package, availability and pricing
The AFE5818 and AFE5816 families and ADS52J90 are all available today. Pricing in 1,000-unit quantities and packaging of each device is listed below.

Device	Features	Noise (nV/rtHz)	Power at 12-bit 80 MSPS (mW/ch)	Price (US$)
AFE5818	LVDS	0.75	143⁽¹⁾	$130
AFE58JD18	LVDS, demodulator and JESD204B	0.75	163⁽²⁾	$215
AFE5816	LVDS	1.00	94 ⁽¹⁾	$120
AFE58JD16	LVDS, demodulator and JESD204B	1.00	114⁽²⁾	$200
ADS52J90	LVDS, demodulator and JESD204B	N/A	38⁽¹⁾	$120

(1)	Specified power number is with LVDS interface.
(2)	Specified power number is with JESD204B and demodulator enabled.

Learn more about TI's ultrasound AFEs

Find out more about TI's solutions for ultrasound systems.
Learn more about TI's JESD204B products.
Find how-to design resources organized by topic in the new Data Converter Learning Center.

About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company that develops analog integrated circuits and embedded processors. By employing the world's brightest minds, TI creates innovations that shape the future of technology. TI is helping more than 100,000 customers transform the future, today. Learn more at www.ti.com.

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SOURCE Texas Instruments