Front End Processor; General Information; Front End Bus; Phased And Linear Array Front End - GE Vivid 7 Service Manual

GE M S
EDICAL YSTEMS
D FC091194, R
IRECTION
Section 5-3

Front End Processor

5-3-1

General Information

The Front End Processor includes all of the boards in the Front End Card Rack:
• RLY (Relay Board)
• TX (Transmitter Board)
• RX128 (Receiver Board)
• BF64 (Beamformer Boards) (2x)
• FEC (Front End Controller Board)
• RFT (Radio Frequency & Tissue Board)
• SDP (Spectrum Doppler Processor)
• IMP2 (Image Port 2)
The Front End can be divided into two subsystems:
1.) The Front End subsystem includes the:
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2.) The Mid Processors subsystem include:
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5-3-2

Front End Bus

Most of the FE boards are controlled by the Front End Controller board via a Front End Bus (FE_BUS).
The FE_BUS is a synchronous and bidirectional bus built up by 16-bit data, 6-bit device address select,
10-bit page address and 8 strobe signals controlling the data transactions. The Front End Controller
board can also read the revision status of the Front End boards through a serial line to a E
located on each board.
5-3-3

Phased and Linear Array Front End

• The phased and linear array probes consist of several identical transducer elements (e.g. 64, 128,
192). Three probes can be connected to the system. The connectors are physically located on the
RLY board, where one of them is selected and connected to the transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX)
through a number of relays.
• Depending on probe type and system setup, a certain scan pattern is selected on the FEC board.
This board loads scan parameters for both the transmitter and the beamformer (steering- and
focusing delays) into local RAM on these boards. Thus, when the FEC board goes through a scan
sequence, it loads the proper contents of the RAM into the Transmitter Puls Generator (TPG), then
issues a transmit trigger pulse (TXTRIG_L) for the transmitter and a receive synchronization pulse
(SYNC_L) for the beamformer. By firing the transmit pulses from the different elements at certain
repeated time intervals and with different delays, the ultrasound beam can be steered in desired
directions (re. principles of operation) obtaining the selected scan patterns (e.g. 2D, 2D Flow etc.).
5 - 4
02
EVISION
RLY (Relay Board)
TX (Transmitter Board)
RX128 (Receiver Board)
BF64 (Beamformer Boards) (2x)
FEC (Front End Controller Board)
RFT (Radio Frequency & Tissue Board)
SDP (Spectrum Doppler Processor)
IMP2 (Image Port 2).
Section 5-3 - Front End Processor
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