ST UM2163 User Manual

January 2017

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www.st.com

UM2163

User manual

Getting started with the STEVAL-IME011V2 evaluation board

based on the STHV748S

ultrasound pulser

Introduction

The STEVAL-IME011V2 evaluation board is designed around the STHV748S 4-channel 5-level high
voltage pulser, a state-of-the-art device designed for ultrasound imaging applications.

This board facilitates evaluation of the ultrasound pulser IC thanks also a new graphical user interface.

Once configured, the output waveforms can be displayed directly on an oscilloscope by connecting the
probe to the relative BNCs.

Figure 1: STEVAL-IME011V2 evaluation board

Contents

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Contents

1 Board features ................................................................................. 5

2 Getting started ................................................................................. 6

3 Hardware layout and configuration ................................................ 7

3.1 Power supply ..................................................................................... 7

3.2 MCU .................................................................................................. 8

3.3 Stored patterns ................................................................................ 10

3.4 STHV748S stage ............................................................................ 18

3.5 Operating supply conditions ............................................................ 20

4 Connectors .................................................................................... 21

4.1 Power supply ................................................................................... 21

4.2 MCU ................................................................................................ 22

5 Schematic diagrams ...................................................................... 25

6 PCB layout ..................................................................................... 26

7 Revision history ............................................................................ 29

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List of tables

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List of tables

Table 1: Program 1 ................................................................................................................................... 12

Table 2: Program 2 ................................................................................................................................... 13

Table 3: Program 3 ................................................................................................................................... 15

Table 4: Program 4 ................................................................................................................................... 18

Table 5: DC working supply conditions ..................................................................................................... 20

Table 6: USB mini B connector pinout ...................................................................................................... 23

Table 7: JTAG connector pinout ............................................................................................................... 23

Table 8: Boot connector pinout ................................................................................................................. 24

Table 9: Document revision history .......................................................................................................... 29

List of figures

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List of figures

Figure 1: STEVAL-IME011V2 evaluation board ......................................................................................... 1

Figure 2: Connection between STM32F4 and STHV748S ......................................................................... 7

Figure 3: STEVAL-IME011V2 board layout ................................................................................................ 7

Figure 4: STEVAL-IME011V2 connections ................................................................................................ 8

Figure 5: Solution 1 with STM32 direct memory access (DMA) peripheral ................................................ 9

Figure 6: Solution 2 with direct MCU core intervention ............................................................................ 10

Figure 7: Program 1 scheme .................................................................................................................... 11

Figure 8: Acquisition by Program 1 ........................................................................................................... 12

Figure 9: Program 2 scheme .................................................................................................................... 13

Figure 10: Acquisition by Program 2 ......................................................................................................... 14

Figure 11: Program 3 scheme .................................................................................................................. 15

Figure 12: Acquisition by Program 3 ......................................................................................................... 16

Figure 13: Program 4 ................................................................................................................................ 17

Figure 14: Acquisition by Program 4 ......................................................................................................... 18

Figure 15: STHV748S single channel block diagram ............................................................................... 19

Figure 16: Power supply connector VDD (+5V - GND) ............................................................................ 21

Figure 17: Power supply connector VSS (GND - -5V) .............................................................................. 21

Figure 18: Power supply connector HVP0 – HVP1 and HVM0 – HVM1 .................................................. 22

Figure 19: USB mini-B connector (CN1)................................................................................................... 22

Figure 20: JTAG connector ....................................................................................................................... 23

Figure 21: Boot connector ........................................................................................................................ 23

Figure 22: STEVAL-IME011V2 circuit schematic ..................................................................................... 25

Figure 23: Top layer .................................................................................................................................. 26

Figure 24: Inner layer 1 ............................................................................................................................. 26

Figure 25: Inner layer 2 ............................................................................................................................. 27

Figure 26: Inner layer 3 ............................................................................................................................. 27

Figure 27: Inner layer 4 ............................................................................................................................. 28

Figure 28: Bottom layer............................................................................................................................. 28

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Board features

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1 Board features

• 4-channel outputs: high voltage and low voltage BNC connectors

• Up to 4 memory locations to store own waveforms designs

• USB connector to load own waveforms onto the board

• Dedicated connectors to supply high voltage and low voltage to the STHV748S output

stage

• 4-key button rapid preferred program selection

• RoHS compliant

Getting started

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2 Getting started

The STEVAL-IME011V2 is shipped by STMicroelectronics ready to use. The user only
needs to:

1 2 3

4

5

6

7

Plug the power supply to the board

Connect the BNCs to the oscilloscope (see Section 3.1: "Power supply" for details)

Check LED PROGRAM 1 (LD1) turns on

Select the waveform with the PROGRAM button

The corresponding PROGRAM LED (LD1-LD4) turns on

Press the START button to run the selected program

The START LED (L5) turns on.

When the program ends, L5 LED turns off

If a continuous wave program is selected, the STOP button must be pressed to
stop program execution and the STOP LED (L5) turns off

To run the same program again, restart from step 5. To run another program,
restart from step 4

An overvoltage protection mechanism suspends pattern generation if the HV
supply exceeds 90 V and the red LED (L6) switches on. Pattern generation restarts
as soon as the HV supply voltage falls back into the allowed range.

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Hardware layout and configuration

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3 Hardware layout and configuration

The STEVAL-IME011V2 evaluation board is designed around the STHV748S.

Figure 2: Connection between STM32F4 and STHV748S

Figure 3: STEVAL-IME011V2 board layout

3.1 Power supply

The STEVAL-IME011V2 low voltage block is designed to be powered:

• during programming and when the board is connected to a PC:

− 5 V DC through a USB Mini B connector to supply the STM32F4

• during pattern generation and when high voltage is powered on:

− 5 V DC connected to VDD to supply STM32F4 and STHV748S through an LDO

− -5 V DC connected to VSS to supply STHV748S through an LDO

Hardware layout and configuration

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The USB connector must be removed when high voltage is powered on.

The STEVAL-IME011V2 high voltage block is designed to be powered:

• VDD: positive supply voltage, 5 V (2 - VDD conn.)

• GND: ground (1 – VDD conn. And 2 – VSS conn.)

• VSS: negative supply voltage 5 V (1 - VSS conn.)

• GND: ground (1 – HVP0 conn.)

• HVP0: TX0 high voltage positive supply (2 - HVP0 conn.)

• GND: ground (1 – HVP1 conn.)

• HVP1: TX1 high voltage positive supply (2 - HVP1 conn.)

• HVM1: TX1 high voltage negative supply (1 - HVM1 conn.)

• GND: ground (2 - HVM1 conn.)

• HVM0: TX0 high voltage negative supply (1 - HVM0 conn.)

• GND: ground (2 – HVM0 conn.)

Figure 4: STEVAL-IME011V2 connections

3.2 MCU

The STM32F427 is fully dedicated to generate the bitstream on its GPIO pins to drive the
pulser output channels. It is already pre-programmed as a DFU (device firmware upgrade)
with the ability of upgrading internal Flash memory.

The STM32F427 manages all the DFU operations, such as the authentication of product
identifier, vendor identifier and firmware version. The MCU drives the pulser channels
through the use of different GPIO pins. You can simultaneously drive from 1 to 16 different
pins by simply writing a 16-bit word into the GPIO output data register (ODR).

The board can be connected to a PC via USB. The required pattern is sent as a sequence
of states for each pulser channel and for each state duration (expressed in units of MCU
system clock cycle).

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Once the information is received, the channel states are converted into 16-bit words for the
GPIO peripheral and they are stored in the embedded Flash, with the timing information.
After programming, the PC is no longer required, so the board becomes a stand-alone
device.

Different patterns can be stored and you can select the one to use at run-time.

The same MCU can implement two different solutions for real-time execution.

The first solution involves the use of the STM32 direct memory access (DMA) peripheral,
which can transfer data from memory to any peripheral register, GPIO included, without the
intervention of the MCU core.

To trigger DMA transfer, a general purpose timer is used, that works at the system clock
frequency and basically acts as a counter: the reload value (the value at which the counter
returns to zero) is stored in the auto reload register (ARR).

The timer triggers two different DMA channels in two different moments:

• the first channel is triggered at each reload event and transfers the new GPIO word to
the ODR;

• the second is triggered at a constant time after reload and transfers the new duration
information to the ARR

The timer preload feature is enabled, so that the new ARR value is effective only at the
next reload. Since the time needed by the first DMA channel to update the ODR is a
constant, considering the reload trigger as a starting point, the time between two different
GPIO updates is simply given by the ARR value.

The DMA circular buffer feature can be enabled to allow automatic regeneration of the
same pattern at each end. This solution has the advantage of being fully managed by
hardware, thus, the MCU core is completely free for any user requirement.

The main drawback is that each timing value between two subsequent states cannot be
lower than a minimum value to guarantee enough time for both DMA channels to perform
their transfers.

Figure 5: Solution 1 with STM32 direct memory access (DMA) peripheral

The second solution is designed to overcome the DMA minimum duration requirement

and directly involves the MCU core:

• during run-time, the core generates the binary assembly code it needs to load and
store each word in the ODR. Any unnecessary instructions like control loops are
avoided; the code is only a succession of simple load/store instructions;