3 ms·
That kind of figures is better than nothing but is exactly what I had in mind between toy systems and what good quality ones are able to provide. 80MHz is actua
by temac 10y ago
That kind of figures is better than nothing but is exactly what I had in mind between toy systems and what good quality ones are able to provide. 80MHz is actually not mandatory but 40MHz starts to be really on the low end side, I think, but for low frequency probes that should still be quite good. Of course if you stick to simple B-mode you can get something visible with pretty much anything. 32 channels seems to start to be quite low, though, but yeah, better than nothing.
If you start to drive your TX path with "small" (depending on the number of channels) FPGA or CPLD, yeah this is more possible than with a raspberry pi GPIOs, this is even how some good ultrasound machines are build (depending on the volume)
In the end the cost of the hardware will be not far from the production cost of a "conventional" ultrasound machine. Because that industry has "low" volumes and very high R&D costs (especially for machines intended for diagnostic use), the difference between production cost and market price is very high. If you can eliminate part of that difference because you operate in another context, that's one way to drive the price down.
So yes, it should be possible to build one with limited capabilities for a few k$ per unit. (Spending various amount of money on R&D, depending what you're doing precisely.)
- stymaar 10y ago> Because that industry has "low" volumes and very high R&D costs (especially for machines intended for diagnostic use), the difference between production cost and market price is very high. This is true, but this is only half of the story : the market price is also high because the elasticity of the demand for medical devices is really low. The hospitals charge a lot of money to their customers and their willingness to pay is also high. I've developed software for customers working in the legal industry and it's the same kind of market: these people pay a lot for really simple stuff because they have money and want to get things done.
- temac 10y agoHm, on the buyer side, it depends on the country but in some it is actually very competitive. So smaller players have a hard time to survive simply because of their lower volumes but similar R&D costs... Plus an ultrasound exam is not too expensive in some (most?) countries.
- hwillis 10y ago10 bit, 32 channel, 80 Msample ADC is <$300 [1] at prototype quantities, and <$150 at production quantities. 12 bit, 64 channel, 80 Msample ADC could be done with 4 of these [2] for $620. An AM5716 or 5726 would be $30-$40 (although buying one is a little trickier). Thats 7-8 processors in one, plus 1-2 DSPs. Plenty of power to handle all the processing required. Even a 128 channel device should only be ~$2000 in parts (minus the transducer). One with limited capabilities should be <$500 (again, minus transducer). Much less if you make a few more compromises in the ADCs. We can make SDRs for incredibly low prices nowadays, the only real difference between that and ultrasound is the number of channels. The only reasons ultrasound machines cost more than 5 grand are economic inefficiencies. The engineering has been solid for a long while now. [1]: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/linear-technology/LTC2289CUP-PBF/LTC2289CUP-PBF-ND/963881 http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/linear-technology/L... [2]: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/texas-instruments/ADS52J90ZZE/296-44080-ND/5994307 http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/texas-instruments/A...