Ultrasound system front-end circuit with pulsers and linear amplifiers for an array transducer

An ultrasound system for producing multi-mode images, the system comprising:

• an array of transducer elements;
• a front-end high voltage transmitter integrated circuit comprising a pulser and a linear transmitter coupled via a common output of the integrated circuit to a common element of the array of transducer elements;
• a transmit data memory, coupled to inputs of the high voltage transmitter integrated circuits and containing transmit data bytes for both the pulser and the linear transmitter;
• a plurality of receive signal paths, each coupled to a separate transducer element of the array;
• a plurality of integrated circuit ADCs, each having an input coupled to the plurality of receive signal paths and an output coupled to a serial data output line;
• a beamformer FPGA integrated circuit in an integrated circuit package coupled to receive echo signals from one or more serial data output lines of the plurality of integrated circuit ADCs;
• and an image processor, coupled to receive beamformed echo signals from the beamformer.