Optimizing Analog Front End Architectures for Enhanced SNR in Photoacoustic Imaging

In the field of photoacoustic imaging, systems with light sources with low pulse energy are currently being investigated. This study presents an analysis of different analog front-end architectures for such imaging, in particular their impact on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The focus is on systems with high pulse repetition frequencies (PRF) and sampling rates of up to 50 Mega-Samples per second (MSPS). The architectures, which is tailored to Piezoelectric and Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (PMUTs & CMUTs), include combinations of analog front-ends (AFE), preamplifiers, transimpedance amplifiers, and analog-to-digital converters (ADC). For testing purposes, the MUTs are simulated and set up with passive components.