Abstract
In this paper, we present the implementation of a reconfigurable FPGA-based system for transferring raw ultrasound data using Gigabit Ethernet interface to perform and evaluate the digital signal processing steps according to the Delay-and-Sum (DAS) beamforming method for B-mode imaging, in order to reduce the transfer and computing time. The proposed system consists of two Terasic FPGA development boards and a computer with the Matlab software. The first FPGA board is used for assembling and transmitting data packets with ultrasonic information via Ethernet protocol. The second FPGA board receives the data packets and performs the back-end digital signal processing. The resulting data are transferred to the PC, through a USB port, for scan conversion and image display. The experiments were performed using RF data from an ultrasound phantom for active apertures of 8 and 32 elements. The performance of the proposed algorithm was evaluated by computing the normalized mean square error (NRMSE), contrast ratio (CR) and the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the reconstructed B-mode images. The analysis of the reconstructed images was performed by comparing the results from the reference Matlab script to results from the Simulink model and the FPGA experimental architecture. The overall processing time was reduced significantly to less than 10 s. Both the qualitative and quantitative analysis results of the generated images indicate that the Simulink and FPGA responses are in excellent agreement with the reference Matlab model.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Shung KK (2006) Diagnostic ultrasound: imaging and blood flow measurements. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Hedrick WR, Hykes DL, Starchman DE (2004) Ultrasound physics and instrumentation. CV Mosby, St. Louis, London
Kruizinga P et al (2017) Towards 3D ultrasound imaging of the carotid artery using a programmable and tileable matrix array. In: 2017 IEEE international ultrasonics symposium (IUS). IEEE, pp 1–3
Jensen JA (1996) Field: a program for simulating ultrasound systems. Paper presented at the 10th Nordic-Baltic conference on biomedical imaging. Med Biol Eng Comput 34(1):351–353
Assef AA., Maia JM, Costa ET (2015) A flexible multichannel FPGA and PC-based ultrasound system for medical imaging research: initial phantom experiments. Res Biomed Eng 31(3):277–281
Wilson T et al (2006) The ultrasonix 500RP: a commercial ultrasound research interface. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 53(10):1772–1782
Verasonics Inc. https://verasonics.com/vantage-systems/
Triple-Speed Ethernet Intel® FPGA IP Core. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/programmable/products/intellectual-property/ip/interface-protocols/m-alt-ethernet-mac.html
Assef AA et al (2019) FPGA implementation and evaluation of an approximate Hilbert transform-based envelope detector for ultrasound imaging using the DSP builder development tool. In: 2019 41st annual international conference of the IEEE engineering in medicine and biology society (EMBC). IEEE, pp 2813–2816
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the following Brazilian organizations: CNPq, FINEP, Araucária Foundation, CAPES, UTFPR, and the Ministry of Health for their financial support that made our research possible. We also thank the Intel FPGA University Program for donating the DE4-230 FPGA board.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
de Oliveira, J., Assef, A.A., Medeiros, R.A.C., Maia, J.M., Costa, E.T. (2022). Implementation of an Ultrasound Data Transfer System via Ethernet with FPGA-Based Embedded Processing. In: Bastos-Filho, T.F., de Oliveira Caldeira, E.M., Frizera-Neto, A. (eds) XXVII Brazilian Congress on Biomedical Engineering. CBEB 2020. IFMBE Proceedings, vol 83. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70601-2_134
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70601-2_134
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-70600-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-70601-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)