UltrasoundToGo

Giovanni De Micheli
Luca Benini
Jean-Yves Meuwly
Joseph Sifakis
Lothar Thiele
Jean-Philippe Thiran

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Ultrasound Imaging Strengths

Imaging technology of choice in many medical

sectors
Cardiology, Obstetrics, Gastroenterology
Emergency medicine (e.g. FAST exam for occult bleeding)

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US Imaging Limitations

Requires trained specialists (radiologist or sonographer)

US job outlook: +26% sonographers by 2024 [BLS.gov]
Minimum 3-6 months of directed education [WHO].
Not easy to deploy in rescue, on-the-field applications
Difficult access to rural areas, developing countries
Top barriers in developing world:
60% lack of training, 50% cost of machines [Shah2011]

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Telesonography

Telesonography can be the solution

Operator with minimal training acquires the scan
Nurse, rescue personnel, general practitioner
Experienced doctor diagnoses the scan (realtime or offline)
Specialist in hospital, possibly far away/abroad

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 What is Needed?

1. A portable, inexpensive, low-power scanner

2. The scanner must be 3-Dimensional (3D)

By acquiring volumes instead of planes,
the threshold of operators expertise is lower

3. Good-enough imaging quality for the

applications

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 UltrasoundToGo Objective
Goal:
Demonstrate the feasibility of an acquisition device
for telesonography

Ultrasound ProbeBeamforming Electronics & Upload

SW to Hospital
ontains piezoelectric elements
Process the echo data
Canwith
be performed with standard
Generates acoustic waves and measures
throughput-intensive algorithms
techniques
to over the Internet,
cho intensities and reconstruct
timing an image of the body section
e.g. over WiFi or 4G.

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 Related Products

Professional 3D scanners
expensive, bulky, >500W
Siemens Acuson, Philips Epiq, Samsung
WS80

Efforts for mobility are usually 2D scanners (radiologist needed)

[] MUs US-304 portable ultrasound
Philip
imager, powered by ST [] aiming to
s
[] diagnostics in remote rural areas
Visiq
of Africa. PR: 14.04.2016

First attempts at miniaturized 3D are full of limitations

BK Ultrasounds Sonic Window
To locate vessels for dialysis cannulation.
Acquires
images 3 cm deep and only computes one
cross-section. 8
Selected Project Achievements
1. A 3D US acquisition probe and a unique fully-digital
probe, enabling simpler and cheaper interfacing and
cabling
2. A single-FPGA beamformer capable of 1024-
channel processing at >50 volumes per second
(beyond state of the art) requiring only ~5W power
(unprecedented) with good image quality
3. Software and SW mapping toolchains to
reconstruct US images on next-generation multicore
chips efficiently and with performance guarantees
4. Compresed sensing techniques reducing by up to
80% the data rate to be transmitted and stored
between probe and imaging unit, while maintaining
or improving image quality
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Probe Design

Processing Module
(FPGA)
HV Supply Module

Transducer

QSFP Cage
Motherboard
RX stage, Power / Clk Management

2x 32 channel HV TX boards

Reduces volume by 2X and cross-section by

3X compared to previous prototype (30x33 10
Probe Design

Reduces volume by 2X and cross-section by

3X compared to previous prototype (30x33 11
 FPGA Imager

HDMI port
Direct video output
for operator feedback

Optical input
Receives real-time data from Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale FPGA chip
Digital probe Performs 1024-channel beamforming 12
(delay, apodization, sum), scan conversion
FPGA Imager Performance

High resolution
32x32=1024-channel in a single
XCKU040 chip
Most high-end equipment supports
only 256
Configurable volume: e.g.,
73x73x10cm
64x64x600 = 2.5Mvoxels per frame
One insonification per frame or zone
imaging
High frame rate 13
Compressed Beamforming on in vivo carotid

Proposed image
Reference image
Reference image
Compressed
Standard image
Standard image image
reconstruction
reconstruction reconstruction
algorithm
algorithm algorithm
32 elements (-
128 elements 32 elements (-
75%)
CTR = -31dB 75%)
CTR = -26dB
CTR = -31dB 14
Conclusions

Ultrasound imaging supports

telesonography

US imaging improves diagnosis in many

scenarios, and achieves major cost/time
savings

Future efforts relate to the clinical side:

Helping doctors navigate remote 3D scans

Automatically diagnosing some conditions 15
 Thanks for your attention!

www.nano-tera.ch
Visit us at www.nano-tera.ch

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