Granted Patent B2

US 12,678,137 · App. 17/578,370 · Granted Jul 14, 2026

Inventors: Jonathan M. Rothberg (Guilford, CT); Keith G. Fife (Palo Alto, CA); Tyler S. Ralston (Clinton, CT); Gregory L. Charvat (Guilford, CT); Nevada J. Sanchez (Guilford, CT)

A61B8/4494A61B8/14A61B8/145A61B8/4483A61B8/4488A61B8/54A61N7/00A61N7/02B06B1/02B81C1/00246G01S7/52019G01S7/52034G01S7/52047G01S7/5208G01S15/02G01S15/8915G01S15/8977H04R1/00A61B8/485

Abstract

Claims (21)

1 . An ultrasound device, comprising:

a single solid state semiconductor die with the following components disposed thereon: an ultrasound element having at least one micromachined ultrasonic transducer configured to both transmit and receive acoustic signals and an event memory configured to:

store values for at least one configurable operating parameter associated with respective acoustic signal transmit event numbers;

receive the transmitted acoustic signal transmit event numbers from a controller; and

output the stored values for the at least one configurable operating parameter associated with the respective acoustic signal transmit event numbers to a programmable waveform generator;

the programmable waveform generator receiving the stored values for at least one configurable operating parameter associated with the respective acoustic signal transmit event numbers from the event memory, coupled to the ultrasound element, and configured to provide, to the at least one micromachined ultrasonic transducer, an ultrasound waveform generated using at least one of the received stored values for the at least one configurable operating parameter associated with the respective acoustic signal transmit event numbers, the programmable waveform generator comprising circuitry configured to discretize the ultrasound waveform before providing the ultrasound waveform to the at least one micromachined ultrasonic transducer; and

the controller configured to control the values of the at least one configurable operating parameter of the programmable waveform generator by: i) controlling the acoustic signal transmit event numbers, and ii) sending the acoustic signal transmit event numbers to the event memory;

the controller further configured to generate a sequence of outputs for controlling transmission events and receive events, wherein the transmission events are associated with the acoustic signal transmit event numbers and the receive events are associated with acoustic signal receive event numbers; and

the controller further configured to operate in multiple modes of sequencing the transmission events and the receive events including performing: a single transmit event for every single receive event, multiple transmit events for every single receive event, a single transmit event for every multiple receive events, and multiple transmit events for every multiple receive events.

2 . The ultrasound device of claim 1 , wherein the programmable waveform generator is configured to generate a chirp, and comprises at least one register configured to control the at least one configurable operating parameter.

3 . The ultrasound device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one configurable operating parameter comprises a starting phase of the chirp, and the at least one register comprises a phase register configured to control the starting phase of the chirp.

4 . The ultrasound device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one configurable operating parameter comprises a starting frequency of the chirp, and the at least one register comprises a frequency register configured to control the starting frequency of the chirp.

5 . The ultrasound device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one configurable operating parameter comprises a rate at which a frequency of the chirp changes over time, and the at least one register comprises a chirp rate register configured to control the rate at which the frequency of the chirp changes over time.

6 . The ultrasound device of claim 1 , wherein:

the single solid state semiconductor die further comprises an accumulator disposed thereon; and

the circuitry configured to discretize the ultrasound waveform comprises a comparator or a look up table coupled to the accumulator.

7 . The ultrasound device of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry configured to discretize the ultrasound waveform is configured to discretize the ultrasound waveform based on high and low voltage values stored in registers.

8 . The ultrasound device of claim 1 , wherein the single solid state semiconductor die further comprises a digital serial communication module disposed thereon, the digital serial communication module configured to communicate a serial digital stream of data from the ultrasound device to an external device.

9 . The ultrasound device of claim 1 , wherein:

the single solid state semiconductor die further comprises a shift register disposed thereon; the shift register is coupled to an input of the programmable waveform generator; and

the shift register is configured to provide a timing control signal to the programmable waveform generator.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (5)

References Cited (363)