Design and construction of a high frame rate imaging system

A new high frame rate imaging method has been developed recently [Jian‐yu Lu, ‘‘2D and 3D high frame rate imaging with limited diffraction beams,’’ IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 44, 839–856 (1997)]. This method may have a clinical application for imaging of fast moving objects such as human hearts, velocity vector imaging, and low‐speckle imaging. To implement the method, an imaging system has been designed. The system consists of one main printed circuit board (PCB) and 16 channel boards (each channel board contains 8 channels), in addition to a set‐top box for connections to a personal computer (PC), a front panel board for user control and message display, and a power control and distribution board. The main board contains a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and controls all channels (each channel has also an FPGA). We will report the analog and digital circuit design and simulations, multiplayer PCB designs with commercial software (Protel 99), PCB signal integrity testing and system RFI/EMI shielding, and the assembly and construction of the entire system. [Work supported in part by Grant 5RO1 HL60301 from NIH.]