Pulse-Echo Instrumentation

The Circuitry:

 Voltage activation of the PE crystal

 Ultrasound formation
 Propagation
 Reflection
 Charge formation of crystal
 Processing
 Display
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Transmitter

TRX Receiver Scan

Detector
Amplifier Converter

Display

TGC

TGC – Time Gain Compensation Circuit

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Pulser Components

1. HV pulse generator

2. The clock generator

3. The transducer
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Applied Voltage Generated Wave

+ +
V P
TIME

TIME
-
-
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The Pulser rate is known as the pulse repetition frequency
(PRF).

Typical PRF 3,000 – 5,000.

PRF automatically adjusted as a function of imaging depth.

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Switch that controls the output power of the HV generator is
the attenuator.
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PULSER TRX

ATTENUATOR
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CLOCK GENERATOR

Controls the actual number of pulses which activate the crystal.

Responsible for sending timing signal to the

1. Pulse generator
2. TGC circuitry
3. Memory
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CLOCK TGC UNIT

GENERATOR

HV
GENERATOR MEMORY

TRS

TRX CRT
DISPLAY
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Sensitivity refers to the weakest echo signal that the
instrument is
capable of detecting and displaying.

Factors that determine sensitivity are

1. Transducer frequency
2. Overall and TGC receiver gain
3. Reject control
4. Variable focal zone on array real-time instruments.
Pulse-Echo Instrumentation
Increasing the voltage causes

1. Greater amplitude – greater penetration

2. Longer pulses – degrades axial resolution

3. Increase exposure
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Transducer has dual roles; transmitting and receiving signals.

The transducer is capable of handling a wide range of

voltage amplitude.

The Receiver is capable of handling only smaller signals

Therefore it is desirable to isolate the pulser circuit from the

receiver circuit.
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The Transmit Receive Switch

TRS – positioned at the input of the receiver and is designed to

pass only voltages signals originating at the transducer by the
returning echoes.
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The Receiver Unit consist of

1. Radiofrequency Amplifier

2. Time gain compensation TGC unit

3. Demodulation Circuit

4. Detector Circuit

5. Video Amplifier
 MEMORY
PULSER TGC UNIT

RF
TRX TRS
RECEIVER

CRT
DISPLAY

DEMODULATOR

DETECTOR

VIDEO
AMPLIFIER
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Radio-Frequency Amplifier

• Amplify weak voltage signals.

• This is called GAIN

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Electric signals generated by the transducer are weak and
needs amplification.

The gain is the ratio of the output to input Voltage or Power.

Gain = Voltage Out

Voltage In
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The Imaging effect of adjusting gain are:

1. Increasing the gain - increased sensitivity, better

penetration

2. Decreasing the gain – decreased sensitivity, less

penetration

3. Too high a gain – overloads the display, loss or spatial

resolution
Pulse-Echo Instrumentation

Amplitude Saturation Level

Normal Gain

Distance
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Excess Gain
Saturation Level
Amplitude

Distance
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Primary objective of grayscale pulse-echo imaging is to make
all like reflectors appear the same in the Image regardless
where they are located in the sound beam.
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Time Gain Compensation TGC

TGC - electronic process of adjusting the overall system

gain as a function of the transmit time.
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TGC Controls

• Near Gain

• Slope Delay

• Slope

• Knee

• Far Gain

• Body Wall
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KNEE MAX GAIN

Gain NEAR GAIN SLOPE

dB

DELAY
Depth cm
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KNEE MAX GAIN

NEAR GAIN
Gain SLOPE
dB

Depth cm
Body wall
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KNEE

Gain SLOPE
CUT-OFF
dB

DELAY
Depth cm
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The slide potentiometer allows adjustment of receiver gain for
small discrete depth increments.
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Slide Potentiometer

Gain
dB

Depth (Time)
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Frequency Tuning of the Receiver

The frequency band width of the receiver refers to the range

of ultrasound signal frequencies that the receiver can amplify
with a maximum gain.
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Types of Amplifiers

• Wide-Band
• Narrow-Band
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Wide-band amplifier Narrow-band amplifier

Gain Gain

Frequency MHz Frequency MHz

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Receiver Unit
Receiver A

Receiver B
Output
TRX To
System

Receiver C

Frequency Receiver D
Selector
Switch
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DYNAMIC RANGE

The dynamic range is a measure of the range of echo signal

amplitudes.

The dynamic range can be measured at any point.

The dynamic range decreases from transducer, to receiver to

scan converter and finally to display.
Pulse-Echo Instrumentation
Large range in signal amplitudes is due to:

1. Normal variation in the reflection amplitude.

2. Frequency dependent tissue attenuation.
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RF amplifier can handle a wide range of signal amplitude at its
input – but cannot accommodate the corresponding output using
linear amplification.
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Linear amplification - all voltages amplitudes, regardless of
size at the point of input are amplified with the same gain
factor.
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LOGARITHMIC AMPLIFICATION

In Logarithmic amplification weak echoes amplitudes are

amplified more than strong echoes.

This can reduced the dynamic range by as much as 50%.

The process of reducing the signal DR by electronic means is

called COMPRESSION
Pulse-Echo Instrumentation

A Linear Amplification
Gain

B
Logarithmic Amplification

Input signal
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R-F amplifier can also set the electronic level in the machine.

S-N level – compares real echo signals the system can handle
versus the non-echo signals presents (Noise).

The Higher the SN ratio – better the operation of the system.

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Pre-amplification is a technique to reduce system noise.

Positioning of part of the amplifier circuitry in the transducer

housing reduces system noise.
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REJECTION
Rejection is the receiver function that enables the operator to
systematically increase or decrease the minimum echo signal
amplitude which can be displayed.

Alternate names = Threshold, Suppression.

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Saturation Level

Rejection Level
Dynamic
Range

Noise
Level
Zero Signal Level
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SIGNAL PROCESSING

RF waveform – oscillating type of voltage signal (AC)

First Step in processing the signal is Demodulation.

Demodulation is the process of converting the electric

signal from one form to another.
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DEMODULATION

 Rectification

 Detection
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RECTIFICATION

• Rectification results in the elimination of the negative

portion of the RF signals

• Half Wave Rectification

• Full wave Rectification

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Half-Wave
Rectification
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Full-Wave
Rectification
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DETECTION

The main effect of detecting the rectified RF signal is to

round out or smooth the signal as to have a single broad
peak.

The rectified RF signal following detection is referred to as a

Video Signal.
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Smoothing
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The video signal is then further amplified by the
VIDEO AMPLIFIER.

The output from the video amplifier is forwarded to

1. CRT or

2. Scan converter
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DIGITAL SCAN CONVERTER

The device that stores the echo signal is called a Scan

converter.
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All Scan Converters are designed to

1. Store echoes in appropriate location

2. Encode echoes in shade of gray

3. Read out echoes in a horizontal raster format

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4. Digital Memory is divided into small squares = Pixel.

5. The Pixels form the Image Matrix

6. Total # of storage location = rows x columns

7. x and y location = ADDRESS

 Matrix

Rows x, coordinates
 Matrix

Columns, y coordinates
Matrix

Pixel
 10x
10y

X, Y ADDRESS

8x
7y

5x
5y

3x
3y

1x
1y
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In the Scan converter the echoes are processed on a first-
come first-in basis.
 X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
 X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
 50 50

50 50

50 50

50 50

50 50

50 50
Raster
Process
50 50

50 50

50 50

50 50

50 50

50 50
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DIGITAL SCAN CONVERTER

• Convert echo voltage signal into a numerical value.

• Each numerical value corresponds to a shade of gray.

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The number of shades of gray is determined by the BIT
CAPACITY.

# of shades of gray = 2
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Echoes
dB
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Bit Shades of Gray
1 2
2 4
3 8
4 16
5 32
6 64
7 128
8 256
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Gray Scale Resolution = dynamic range (dB)
# of gray shades
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Operator can select different A/ D conversion scheme
(Preprocessing).

Each preprocessing curve is called an algorithm and assigns a

specific percentage amount of shades of gray to regions of
the echo amplitude.
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% Available
Shade of gray

100%
1
2

50%
3
4

0%
Echo Strength
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POST PROCESSING

Assignment of specific display brightness

to numerical echo amplitudes read out of
the digital memory.
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9 7 8 8 8 8 8 8

8 9 8 7 8 8 8 8

7 8 8 9 8 8 8 8

SMOOTHING
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The DSC is not necessary for image display, but is needed for
the following post-processing functions.

• Video Invert

• Display Invert

• Display Subdivision

• Zoom Magnification
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Zoom Magnification

• Read Zoom

• Write Zoom
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Resolution at the DSC

1. Find Matrix size

2. Determine FOV ( width/ length)

3. Calculate pixels/ cm

4. Find linear distance/ pixel = resolution

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Data Data
Pre- Post-
Processing M Processing
R A

Data Data
Collection Reformatting
ADC
&
Formatting

Echo Positional
Signal Data

Display
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1. ROM

2. PROM

3. RAM