Miniaturized 0.13-µm CMOS front-end analog for AlN PMUT arrays
Zamora, Iván (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica)
Ledesma, Eyglis (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica)
Uranga del Monte, Aránzazu (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica)
Barniol i Beumala, Núria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica)

Date:	2020
Abstract:	This paper presents an analog front-end transceiver for an ultrasound imaging system based on a high-voltage (HV) transmitter, a low-noise front-end amplifier (RX), and a complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor, aluminum nitride, piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMOS-AlN-PMUT). The system was designed using the 0. 13-µm Silterra CMOS process and the MEMS-on-CMOS platform, which allowed for the implementation of an AlN PMUT on top of the CMOS-integrated circuit. The HV transmitter drives a column of six 80-µm-square PMUTs excited with 32 V in order to generate enough acoustic pressure at a 2. 1-mm axial distance. On the reception side, another six 80-µm-square PMUT columns convert the received echo into an electric charge that is amplified by the receiver front-end amplifier. A comparative analysis between a voltage front-end amplifier (VA) based on capacitive integration and a charge-sensitive front-end amplifier (CSA) is presented. Electrical and acoustic experiments successfully demonstrated the functionality of the designed low-power analog front-end circuitry, which outperformed a state-of-the art front-end application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in terms of power consumption, noise performance, and area.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2015-66337-R
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Ultrasound ; PMUT ; High-voltage (HV) transmitter ; Low-voltage receiver (RX) amplifier ; Ultrasound application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) ; Monolithical integration ; CMOS ; MEMS
Published in:	Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), Vol. 20, Issue 4 (February 2020) , art. 1205, ISSN 1424-8220

DOI: 10.3390/s20041205
PMID: 32098323

18 p, 7.2 MB

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