Miniaturized 0.13-µm CMOS front-end analog for AlN PMUT arrays

Iván Zamora, Eyglis Ledesma, Arantxa Uranga, Núria Barniol*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

37 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original languageAmerican English
Article number1205
JournalSensors
Volume20
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Feb 2020

Keywords

  • CMOS
  • High-voltage (HV) transmitter
  • Low-voltage receiver (RX) amplifier
  • MEMS
  • Monolithical integration
  • PMUT
  • Ultrasound
  • Ultrasound application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)

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