There has long been a need for portable ultrasound systems that have good resolution at affordable cost points. Portable systems enable health care providers to use ultrasound in remote locations such as disaster zones, developing regions, and battlefields, where it was not previously practical to do so.

Designing these compact systems is a complex challenge because they contain up to 128 channels, support CW Doppler, and include numerous connectivity requirements, A/D conversion, high-end DSP, high-speed interconnects, and powerful processing capabilities. This white paper describes how design engineers can take advantage of Virtex-6, Spartan-6, and 7 series FPGAs to handle this complexity, and bring cutting-edge ultrasound technology to market quickly within cost and power constraints.

Medical ultrasound is a fascinating application of sonar technology that enables sonographers to visualize the internal tissue structure of a humans or animals in real time. It is most commonly known for its use during a woman’s pregnancy to view and assess the development of a child, but it has many other important uses in diagnosing and treating medical conditions. Some examples include emergency room injury assessment, blood flow monitoring with CW Doppler, and guiding the application of regional anesthesia. Recently, ultrasound probes have been mounted at the distal tip of endoscopes to better diagnose conditions in or near the GI tract. With advances in manufacturing, digital processing, and analog technologies, the benefits of ultrasound systems continue to expand to new applications, and as the systems shrink in size and cost, they are becoming more available to health care providers in remote locations.