dr. Zhao Chen

1. An Amplitude-Programmable Energy-Recycling High-Voltage Resonant Pulser for Battery-Powered Ultrasound Devices
   Bellouki, Imad; Rozsa, Nuriel N. M.; Chang, Zu-Yao; Chen, Zhao; Tan, Mingliang; Pertijs, Michiel A. P.;
   IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits,
   pp. 1--12, 2024. Early Access. DOI: 10.1109/JSSC.2024.3494536
   
   Abstract: ...

   This article presents an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for battery-powered ultrasound (US) devices. The ASIC implements a novel energy-efficient high-voltage (HV) pulser that generates HV transmit (TX) pulses directly from a low-voltage (LV) battery supply. By means of a single off-chip inductor, energy is supplied to a US transducer in a resonant fashion, directly generating half-period sinusoidal HV pulses on the transducer, while consuming substantially less energy than a conventional class-D pulser. By recycling residual reactive energy from the transducer back to the input, the energy consumption is further reduced by more than 50%. The autocalibration techniques are leveraged to deal with tolerances of the inductor, transducer, and battery supply and thus maximize the energy efficiency. A prototype chip was fabricated in TSMC 0.18-μm HV BCD technology and used to drive external 120pF capacitive micromachined US transducers (CMUTs) with a center frequency of approximately 2.5 MHz. Electrical measurements show that the prototype can generate pulses with a peak amplitude between 10 and 30 V accurate to within ±1 V. Acoustic measurements demonstrate successful ultrasonic pulse transmission and pulse-echo measurements. The prototype reaches a peak efficiency of 0.23 fCV2, which is the highest reported to date for HV pulsers targeting US imaging.

2. A 2000-Volumes/s 3D Ultrasound Imaging Chip with Monolithically-Integrated 11.7x23.4mm² 2048-Element CMUT Array and Arbitrary-Wave TX Beamformer
   Nuriel M. Rozsa; Zhao Chen; Taehoon Kim; Peng Guo; Yannick Hopf; Jason Voorneveld; Djalma Simoes dos Santos; Emile Noothout; Zu-Yao Chang; Chao Chen; Vincent A. Henneken; Nico de Jong; Hendrik J. Vos; Johan G. Bosch; Martin D. Verweij; Michiel A. P. Pertijs;
   In Dig. Techn. Paper IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits (VLSI),
   IEEE, pp. 1--2, June 2024. DOI: 10.1109/VLSITechnologyandCir46783.2024.10631363

3. An ASIC for Efficient Generation of High-Voltage Transmit Pulses for Battery-Powered Ultrasound Devices
   Imad Bellouki; Nuriel Rozsa; Zu-Yao Chang; Zhao Chen; Mingliang Tan; Michiel Pertijs;
   In Annual Workshop on Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing (ProRISC),
   July 2024.

4. A 3D Ultrasound Probe with Monolithically-Integrated 4096-Element CMUT Array Imaging 60° x 60° x 10cm at 2000 Volumes/s
   Nuriel N. M. Rozsa; Zhao Chen; Taehoon Kim; Peng Guo; Yannick Hopf; Jason Voorneveld; Djalma Simoes dos Santos; Emile Noothout; Zu-Yao Chang; Chao Chen; Vincent A. Henneken; Nico de Jong; Hendrik J. Vos; Johan G. Bosch; Martin D. Verweij; Michiel A. P. Pertijs;
   In Annual Workshop on Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing (ProRISC),
   July 2024.

5. A 3D Ultrasound Probe with Monolithically-Integrated 4096-Element CMUT Array Imaging 60° x 60° x 10cm at 2000 Volumes/s
   Nuriel N. M. Rozsa; Zhao Chen; Taehoon Kim; Peng Guo; Yannick Hopf; Jason Voorneveld; Djalma Simoes dos Santos; Emile Noothout; Zu-Yao Chang; Chao Chen; Vincent A. Henneken; Nico de Jong; Hendrik J. Vos; Johan G. Bosch; Martin D. Verweij; Michiel A. P. Pertijs;
   In Proc. IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS),
   IEEE, September 2024. abstract, Best Student Paper Award.

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