Cephasonics Releases New cQuest Dragonfly Family of Ultra-Compact Ultrasound Systems

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Cephasonics, a technology-innovation leader with a game-changing embedded-ultrasound platform, today announced the introduction of the cQuest Dragonfly™ family of modular 32- or 64-channel, high performance systems engineered for size and flexibility. Dragonfly, along with the included cQLink™ network-communications technology, will be showcased at Medica 2013 held in Dusseldorf, Germany from November 20-23.  Cephasonics is located in the U.S. Pavilion in Hall 16, Booth D18-3. Following Medica, Cephasonics will be exhibiting Dragonfly at RSNA 2013 in Chicago from December 1-6.

According to Dr. Bern Shen, chief medical officer of HealthCrowd and a member of the Cephasonics Medical Advisory Board, "the technology is a game-changer in two ways.  One is the quality of the images and the other is the size and portability."

"Our cQuest Dragonfly systems are optimized for next-generation, go-to-market ultrasound products," said Richard Tobias, CEO and president of Cephasonics. "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." Two typical use cases are small point-of-care appliances for clinical applications and wearable wireless ultrasound devices for both medical and industrial applications.

Cephasonics' new cQuest Dragonfly platform is a product family of ultra-compact, complete 32- or 64-channel embedded-ultrasound systems that support up to 192-element probes. The included cQuest Ultrasound API software gives customers 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. The system hardware includes all the ultrasound-specific front-end transmit and receive analog, digital and power circuitry along with an embedded host MCU. The system design builds upon Cephasonics' award-winning technology, including its AutoFocus™ beamforming technology.

Announced earlier this year, 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. Ultrasound applications developed with cQLink no longer need to run adjacent to the underlying cQuest Ultrasound hardware.  Up to eight displays can be hooked up.

Key Specifications

32-channel ultrasound blade (1 or 2 blades for 32- or 64-channel system)

• 40Msps, 12-bit receive analog-front-end
• 3-level or 5-level transmit pulsing
• AutoFocus™ receive beamformer with delay and weight values updated on every sample
• Transmit beamformer with programmable pulse shape tables

Probe interface

• ZIF260 connector supporting 128- or 192-element probes
• Probes supported: phased array, linear, convex, custom; 1D/2D

Host

• Ultrasound control with high-precision timing sequencer
• Nvidia Tegra 3 computer module (Toradex Colibri)
• Support B-mode log, harmonic imaging, M-mode and Doppler modes such as CFM, PDI and PWD in duplex or triplex

Software

• cQuest Ultrasound API
• FrameViewer™ application example (executable and source)
• cQLink client/server technology

Power consumption: 20W (typical, 32-channel with embedded host)

Dimensions

• Size: 5in x 4½in x 2in; 12.7cm x 11.5cm x 5.1cm
• Weight: 2lbs; .9kg (32-ch product)

Pricing and Availability

Projected pricing for Dragonfly in a 64-channel configuration is $5,000 based on a high-volume production-quantity order.  First shipments are scheduled to start in 1Q 2014. Other members of the Dragonfly family will be rolled out in the first half of 2014. To find out more, contact [email protected].

About Cephasonics

A technology-innovation leader with a game-changing embedded-ultrasound platform, Cephasonics provides a complete range of cQuest™-based technology, systems and components that increase the performance, lower the power and accelerate time-to- market of ultrasound devices. The company's cQuest Ultrasound API software is the catalyst for customer innovations that are spurring a revolution in ultrasound from image-guided procedures to ultrasound as an appliance. Launched with a management buyout in March 2012 and headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., Cephasonics' technology, including its AutoFocus beamforming technology, has won multiple industry awards for innovation. Additional information about Cephasonics can be found at www.cephasonics.com.

cQuest, cQuest Ultrasound, cQuest Ultrasound API, cQuest Dragonfly, cQLink, AutoFocus and FrameViewer are trademarks of Cephasonics.

Photo available upon request.

Company Contact:
Judy Kahn
(650) 996-0936
[email protected]

SOURCE Cephasonics