Abstract

Ultrasound systems use piezo-electric transducer elements to generate ultrasound beams that are used for imaging. Modern day ultrasound systems have 128-512 piezo-electric transducers arranged in an array, which are excited to high voltage (up to ±100V). This can call for an equal number of transmitters and receiver modules to be added to the system. This can be costly and can lead to an increased design size. To overcome this, often high-voltage multiplexers are used to reduce the number of transmitters and receiver modules. Since each channel needs independent control, the number of HV switches needed in the system can go as high as 512. With such a high number of switches, the area occupied by switches in the system becomes critical, especially in ultrasound probes and hand-held systems which are compact in size. This application note focuses on TI’s 32 channel HV switch design, TMUX9832, which is the smallest in the market with a unique pinout that simplifies board layout . This document highlights on how using 4 x TMUX9832 is still simpler compared to 2 x 64 channel competitor devices.