Butterfly Network Puts Ultrasound on a Chip with Cadence

About two-thirds of the world’s population lacks access to medical imaging, whether in developing nations or in first-world countries with underserved communities. Butterfly Network, however, has a solution, and it’s built on a single chip. Specifically, it’s a 3D ultrasound imaging system on a chip (SoC). Their mission is to improve the standard of healthcare around the world by making medical imaging technology easy, economical, and everywhere.

When most people think of ultrasound imaging, they might remember the first time they saw their child inside the womb on a cart-based machine, with a doctor or sonographer showing them the images. Butterfly Network’s imaging device brings down that entire machine to a single semiconductor chip, and it’s made much more affordable. Although it’s pocket-sized, it’s powerful enough to give insights into a carotid artery, a knee joint, and even the heart. Of course, putting such an intricate system on a single chip is no simple feat, and that’s where Cadence’s cutting-edge technology steps in.

Butterfly Network’s co-founder Nevada Sanchez said, “We’ve worked with Cadence for almost a decade, pushing many of their tools almost to their very limits so that we can accomplish the technologies that we’ve built today.” They’ve used the Virtuoso and Innovus platforms to validate mixed-signal designs and ensure silicon success. The Cadence Verification Suite is used for physical and digital verification, and it’s tied into Butterfly’s imaging software to verify software tools before the tapeout of a chip. Cadence’s Allegro, Sigrity, and Clarity technologies are used to identify key design bottlenecks before they become issues in the physical hardware.

Learn more about how Butterfly Networks and Cadence are creating sustainable healthcare solutions by bringing medical imaging to remote communities:

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