The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 10, 2009
Filed:
May. 23, 2006
James Francis Imbornone, Methuen, MA (US);
Ron Gatzke, Lexington, MA (US);
John Scampini, Lexington, MA (US);
Jean-marc Roger Mourant, Groton, MA (US);
James Francis Imbornone, Methuen, MA (US);
Ron Gatzke, Lexington, MA (US);
John Scampini, Lexington, MA (US);
Jean-Marc Roger Mourant, Groton, MA (US);
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
Analog beamformers for continuous wave ultrasonic receivers, typically realized in integrated circuit form and using a direct quadrature baseband conversion architecture for CW Doppler to eliminate a second down conversion mixer and second synthesizer. The beamformers use integrated mixers and LO's for phase steering, and dedicated ring counters for each channel for lower noise. Input filtering may be provided with switchable RF input low pass filters. The integrated circuit includes the ultrasound signal VGA and beamformer on the same chip. An auxiliary channel may be included for a self-test mode. Also a programmable bit soft shutdown feature, programmable via the serial port, allows disabling individual channels. Various other features are disclosed including cascading of multiple integrated circuits for a much greater number of channels.