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acquisitionZONE Products for the week of April 7, 2008
Texas Instruments Says…
AFE58xx: Family of Complete Analog Front Ends For superior Ultrasound Systems
First device for portable diagnostics: 50% smaller, 20% less power, 40% less noise
Extending its high-performance analog expertise in the medical imaging market, Texas Instruments (TI) introduced a family of fully integrated analog front ends (AFEs) for portable to high-end ultrasound diagnostic equipment. TI's AFE58xx family will allow the design of innovative ultrasound systems with superior image quality and reduced power consumption. The first device, the AFE5805, addresses the specific needs of the portable ultrasound market with nearly 50 percent space savings, 20 percent lower power consumption and 40 percent less noise than existing integrated solutions.
Aging populations, rising healthcare costs and increased demand in emerging economies have created a rapidly growing need for innovative medical solutions such as portable and affordable ultrasound equipment to be used in doctors' offices, ambulances, mobile triage situations and remote regions. Frost & Sullivan forecasts the market for portable or hand-carried ultrasound systems to grow with a 19.2 percent compound annual growth rate and reach $330 million by 2010.
"With the changing requirements and design complexity in the ultrasound market, manufacturers require scalable, highly integrated solutions to make ultrasound systems more accessible while further enhancing medical image quality and reducing power consumption," said Kent Novak, vice president of TI's Medical and High-Reliability business unit. "With a full roadmap of AFE58xx devices addressing all market segments, TI is saving systems cost for manufacturers and helping shape technology to improve the quality and affordability of innovative ultrasound systems."
EN-Genius Says…
In a review of the ADS5261 and ADS5282 12-bit 50 Msample/s and 65 Msample/s octal ADCs and the octal VCA8500 programmable gain amplifier, I wrote, “Now, if the company put the octal ADCs and the octal VGAs in the same package…”
And here it is!
I cannot claim any credit for this because my review was only three months ago (in January 2008) and no design team could have turned around that kind of integration in that time period. So all I did was predict a product roadmap that was already in place.
The only compromise in the combination part seems to be the clock rate, which is reduced to 40 Msample/s, for the characterization, although the maximum rate is still quoted at 50 Msample/s. More important is that the incredible noise performance of the PGA is maintained with the 20 dB fixed gain LNA that precedes the PGA proper defining the performance. The power per channel for the new part is 122 mW for a total of 976 mW, well within the package capacity. The power down current drain is still a TBD in the data sheet.
The package, of course, is large but the BGA balls are laid out as a 15 x 9 with the two “9” ends carrying the eight analog inputs at one end and the eight LVDS outputs at the other. Entirely logical and practical, and workable.
Please read the earlier review for further details of performance and architecture.
This is an awesome part that will be extremely profitable for TI and probably knocks the competition out of the stadium for a considerable period of time. We should expect follow-on parts, of course, with higher resolutions. These developments come about none too soon for ultrasound systems, which have been rather hokey for far too long. I know, from personal experience, that when a medical system cannot even measure the size, or estimate the weight, of a just-to-be-born child that it needs attention. TI is getting there with the AFE5805; now it’s up to the OEMs to get the machines out where they are needed. Pricing of the part is fairly irrelevant compared to the final machine price and I think TI could have done at least another $50 better in the 100-piece price, a considerable pricing error in my estimation.
The AFE5805 is sampling in a BGA-135 and is being priced at $75 in 100-piece lots. Evaluation modules are available and volume production is slated for June 2008.
Data Sheet
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