Samplify Systems, a Silicon Valley semiconductor and solutions start-up, has applied its AutoFocus beamformer technology to develop the SAM2032 beamforming ASIC, said to offer the industry’s lowest power consumption and highest performance compared to current field programmable gate array (FPGA) beamformer implementations. The highly configurable ASIC provides the flexibility for simplifying the software and system designs for machines ranging from ultra-low power handhelds, through mid-range and high-end carts.

The receive beamformer is central to any ultrasound front-end electronics subsystem, with the SAM2032 ASIC addressing the gap in the current FPGA implementation of these devices. While higher-end FPGAs can be used to develop a high-performance receive beamformer, their higher cost, higher power consumption, and larger size limits their use to premium console ultrasound machines. Conversely, lower-end FPGAs can be used as a cost-effective alternative, but their limited resources present system performance constraints.