The hardware developed is customized to handle the various SAFT techniques and methods globally being developed. Since two channels are present, the digitizer card can be used for Pulse- echo technique using a single transducer as well as tandem technique. The Pulser-Receiver card can handle upto 20 MHz ultrasonic signals presently being used in SAFT systems worldwide. In the stepper motor controller card, standard features that support checking of mechanical movement like position and angle are also developed. All the cards are made using commercially available components making it cheaper as well as servicing easier. Use of these blocks eliminates the need for expensive digital oscilloscopes and pulser/receiver instruments. The speed of data transfer from the digitizer card to the PC is much higher compared to data transfer from digital oscilloscope. This facilitates use of averaging thereby improving the SNR in the reconstructed SAFT image.

The paper describes the features of the various hardware features of the system and the results obtained by using these cards and a line SAFT algorithm developed in a PC386 system.