US-based Cephasonics has announced the launch of cQuest Dragonfly platform, a product family of ultra-compact, complete 32- or 64-channel embedded-ultrasound systems that support up to 192-element probes.
Dragonfly incorporates cQuest Ultrasound API software which provides an easy, fast way to develop ultrasound-based products from portable standalone imagers to application-specific appliances to adding ultrasound capability to existing equipment in medical and industrial applications.
cQuest Dragonfly hardware includes all the ultrasound-specific front-end transmit and receive analog, digital and power circuitry along with an embedded host MCU.
Key specifications of the cQuest Dragonfly platform include: AutoFocus receive beamformer with delay and weight values updated on every sample; 3-level or 5-level transmit pulsing; Transmit beamformer with programmable pulse shape tables; ZIF260 connector supporting 128- or 192-element probes; Ultrasound control with high-precision timing sequencer; Nvidia Tegra 3 computer module (Toradex Colibri), and others.
The system software includes cQuest Ultrasound API, FrameViewer application example (executable and source) and cQLink client/server technology.
Announced earlier 2013, cQLink client/server technology allows all control and ultrasound data between the server and client sides to take place across a wireless Wi-Fi network or over the Internet.
Up to eight displays can be hooked up with cQLink client/server technology.
Cephasonics president and CEO Richard Tobias noted the company’s cQuest Dragonfly systems are optimized for next-generation, go-to-market ultrasound products.
"Only 5 inches x 4½ inches x 2 inches in size and weighing just 2 pounds, Dragonfly is a full-fledged high-performance embedded-ultrasound system.
Our flexible API software makes it easy for our customers to go into production quickly with a range of ultrasound-based end products with industry-leading size, performance and cost," Tobias added.
Cephasonics will showcase Dragonfly at Medica 2013 in Dusseldorf, Germany, from 20 November through 23 November 2013.
Following Medica, Cephasonics will showcase Dragonfly at RSNA 2013 in Chicago from 1 December to 6 December 2013.
First shipments of the cQuest Dragonfly are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2014.