Imaging applications

This type of application has a long history. The progress made in imaging is truly breathtaking. The product team includes ultrasound, CT (computed tomography), digital X-ray, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and PET (positron emission tomography). There are two trends in power management. Large systems such as MRI and PET are extremely power-hungry and require many distributed power sources. These power supplies require a certain degree of efficiency in order to dissipate heat well.

In imaging applications, it is very likely that any type of system noise (including switching noise or even LDO output voltage noise) will appear in the final image. This may be a common error bar in the image, but sometimes you can also see a decline in image quality in contrast, color, or gray level.

The power supply may affect the image detection or image display circuit. If both are affected in the imaging system, the image quality will become unacceptable. Some medical imaging equipment manufacturers used power management modules before, but eventually gave up. Although in principle these manufacturers can obtain products with guaranteed specifications, the actual EMI performance cannot be guaranteed. The slightest change in the production process of the power module can cause image quality problems. In order to obtain a higher level of control, a better approach may be to completely develop a discrete power supply design and produce it by a healthcare imaging design company.

In conclusion

In medical and healthcare applications, different application fields may have very different requirements for power management. We discussed the requirements for specific solutions in various areas. In the field of home healthcare, many solutions are based on ASSP (application-specific standard products) or even ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). A small number of applications can use standard off-the-shelf power management units. In the fields of instrumentation, patient monitoring and imaging applications, power management solutions will be further optimized for ultra-high-precision signal path components and play an important role.