Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 19 (2016) 964–969

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Engineering Science and Technology,

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ISSN (Online) : 2215-0986
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Full Length Article

Microcontroller USB interfacing with MATLAB GUI for low cost

medical ultrasound scanners
Jean Rossario Raj a,*, S.M.K. Rahman a,b, Sneh Anand a,b
a Center for Bio-Medical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India
b Biomedical Engineering Unit, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: This paper presents an 8051 microcontroller-based control of ultrasound scanner prototype hardware
Received 13 December 2015 from a host laptop MATLAB GUI. The hardware control of many instruments is carried out by
Received in revised form microcontrollers. These microcontrollers are in turn controlled from a GUI residing in a computing machine
1 January 2016
that is connected over the USB interface. Conventionally such GUIs are developed using ‘C’ language or
Accepted 12 January 2016
Available online 1 February 2016
its variants. But MATLAB GUI is a better tool, when such GUI programs need to do huge image/video pro-
cessing. However interfacing MATLAB with the microcontroller is a challenging task. Here, MATLAB
interfacing through an intermediate MEX ‘C’ language program is presented. This paper outlines the MEX
Keywords:
MATLAB programming methods for achieving the smooth interfacing of microcontrollers with MATLAB GUI.
MEX program © 2016, Karabuk University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.
Microcontroller
Ultrasound scanner
USB
USBXpress

1. Introduction language [10,11]. The quality metrics and visual perception in

Microcontroller-based systems offer major advancement as an
internal and external control. Microcontrollers can control major-
ity of the internal devices in a typical circuit board. Moreover majority
of the chips also have built-in interfaces that can be controlled by
the microcontroller. They have USB interface through which it is in-
terfaced with external devices such as a computer or a server [1].
A low-cost USB interface for operant research using Arduino and
Visual Basic is presented in [2]. Many data acquisition systems use
microcontroller and USB interface [3]. The microcontroller pro-
gramming is done in traditional ‘C’ language. Microprocessors and
microcontrollers provide the path for the integration of hardware
and software [4]. Microcontrollers have far-reaching applications
in the field of instrumentation [5,6].
The application in the host computer or the server is generally
written in languages like ‘C’ or its variants like C++, Visual C++, Java,
etc. [7]. The microcontroller manufacturers provide interface pro-
grams in the form of windows dynamically linked libraries (DLL),
which can be compiled along with the applications for interfacing
with the microcontroller [8,9].
For applications involving signal processing, image processing
or video processing, MATLAB is a more suitable programming
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9811084119; fax: +91 1126862037.
E-mail address: bmz108120@cbme.iitd.ac.in (J.R. Raj).
Peer review under responsibility of Karabuk University.
ultrasound imaging under different imaging conditions using
MATLAB test bench were studied in [12]. In MATLAB, there are
many built-in functions and routines that enable faster rollout of
the application [13]. MATLAB has a very large database of built-in
algorithms for mathematical modeling, image processing, simula-
tions and computer vision applications [14,15]. MATLAB has the
ability to read in a wide variety of both common and domain-
specific image formats.
However the major challenge is in interfacing the MATLAB ap-
plication with the microcontroller to get the best of both worlds.
Such requirements involve live reading of images, videos, and direct
processing and display [16]. One application where we came across
the challenge is while developing a prototype for a medical ultra-
sound scanning machine [17,18]. The application was made in
MATLAB to take advantage of the rich image and video processing
capabilities [10,19]. The hardware has USB interfacing to the
microcontroller for configuration of the various parameters of
the internal chips and for performing different operations [20–22].
The microcontroller interfaces with different internal chips, such
as ADC, transmit side FPGA (TxFPGA), receive side FPGA (RxFPGA),
etc. [23,24]. The block schematic of microcontroller interfaces is
shown in Fig. 1. The ADC has custom serial bus programming
whereas FPGAs used Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) program-
ming. The interface programs toward these devices were also
developed for the microcontroller as well as the FPGAs.
Neither MATLAB nor the microcontroller manufacturers provide
the interface logic for interworking. Hence interworking between

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jestch.2016.01.008
2215-0986/© 2016, Karabuk University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.
 J.R. Raj et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 19 (2016) 964–969
Serial
Interface
ADC
SPI
Interface
Rx FPGA
Fig. 1. Block schematic of the experimental setup.
the MATLAB GUI and the microcontroller is a challenging task. The
novel method used for interfacing using a C language interface func-
tion called MEX program is described in this paper.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Interfacing architecture
The logical block schematic of the MATLAB GUI and
microcontroller interfacing with USB is given in Fig. 2, which indi-
cates the microcontroller side as well as the MATLAB GUI side logic
used for the study. A Silicon Laboratories C8051F340 microcontroller
is used. It operates at a maximum speed of 48 MHz with 4 k of on-
board RAM (XRAM) and 64 k flash memory. The microcontroller has
integrated USB receiver and USB controller. It is 48 IO pins config-
ured as 5 IO buses of 8 IOs each. The microprocessor in the
ultrasound scanner prototype interfaces with a bank of ADCs and
FPGAs. The microprocessor firmware is written in C language. One
IO Bus is used as the programming header for programming the
microcontroller. The firmware is transferred to the microcontroller
using the programmer hardware by M/s Silicon Labs. The develop-
ment required the USBXpress API provided by M/s Silicon Labs for
including in the microcontroller firmware, firmware develop-
ment, USBXpress driver installation in the host computer, installation
of C++ compiler (Visual C++ used), development of the MEX file, de-
velopment of the MATLAB GUI, and compilation and linking of the
MEX file from MATLAB.
2.2. USBXpress API
The Silicon Laboratories USBXpress provides the host and device
software solution for interfacing communication bridges to the USB.
A high-level Application Program Interface (API) for both the host
software and device firmware is used to provide USB connectivity.
USBXpress
Micro USB
Library (API)
controller
supplied by
Firmware
SiLabs
Microcontroller Program
Fig. 2. Microcontroller MATLAB interface.
965
Tx FPGA
Address / Data
bus Interface
USB Interface
Micro
controller
MDIO
Interface
Gigabit
Ethernet Phy
The USBXpress includes windows device drivers, device driver in-
staller, host interface function library (host API) provided in the form
of a DLL, and device firmware interface function library. Some of
the important functions performed by the host API are given in
Table 1. While performing each function, the function returns the
status of the operation like SI_SUCCESS or SI_DEVICE_NOT_FOUND
or SI_INVALID_PARAMETER, along with any return values to take
suitable corrective steps in read or write logics. The API is used in
an interrupt driven mode. The c8051340.h and USB_API.h files sup-
plied as part of the application are added to the project in addition
to the “main” firmware file. While building the target, the USBXpress
library file, USBX_F320_1.LIB is linked as an external object.
2.3. Microcontroller firmware
In the developed prototype, the microcontroller configures the
different chips like ADC, FPGA, etc., through the control from the
MATLAB GUI. Hence the microcontroller firmware implements
the USB interface logic as well as the interface logic for the other
devices. The header and the source files developed for the inter-
facing with the ADC, TxFPGA, RxFPGA and PHY device using the four
IO Buses are included in the firmware. Even though the ADC side
does not require any separate software logic, the FPGA side re-
quires the hardware logic written in languages such as Verilog or
VHDL. Similar interface logic is written in the FPGA side also for the
read and write operations using the SPI interface. The SPI inter-
face has read, write, chip enable, Master in Slave Out (MISO) and
Master Out Slave In (MOSI) pins for the interconnection. The
USB_API.h includes the definitions needed by common code to
control the state of the USB peripheral, but this doesn’t need to know
about the specific implementation. The USB_API.h for the USB in-
terface functions and other files like C8051F340_def.h,
compiler_defs.h, stddef.h, stdio.h etc. are included in the compila-
tion. The flowchart of the firmware is given in Fig. 3.
USBXpress
USBXpress MEX
Driver MATLAB
DLL supplied Program in
installed in GUI
by SiLabs C (DLL)
Laptop
Laptop Program
966 J.R. Raj et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 19 (2016) 964–969

Table 1 Table 2
USB API device interface functions. USB DLL interface functions.

Function name Function Function name Function

USB_Clock_Start Initializes the USB clock SI_GetNumDevices Returns the number of devices connected
USB_Init Enables the USB interface SI_GetProductString Returns a descriptor for a device
Block_Write Writes a buffer of data to the host via USB SI_Open Opens a device and returns a handle
Block_Read Reads a buffer of data from the host via USB SI_Close Cancels pending IO and closes the device
USB_Int_Enable Enables API interrupts SI_Read Reads a block of data from the device
USB_Disable Disables USB interface SI_Write Writes a block of data to the device
USB_Suspend Suspends the USB interface SI_SetTimeouts Sets read and write block timeout
SI_CheckRXQueue Gets the number of bytes in the device Rx Queue

2.4. USBXpress DLL

M/s Silicon Labs has provided the USBXpress DLL as ‘SiUSBXp.dll’.
This acts as the interface between the USBXpress driver in the host
computer and the MEX file. The important functions supported by
the DLL are given in Table 2. The user initiates communication with
the target USB device(s) by making a call to SI_GetNumDevices. This
will return the number of target devices. This number is used when
calling SI_GetProductString to build a list of device serial numbers
or product description strings. To access a device, it is opened by a
call to SI_Open using an index determined from the call to
SI_GetNumDevices. The SI_Open function will return a handle to
the device that is used in all subsequent accesses. Data I/O is per-
formed using the SI_Write and SI_Read functions. When I/O
operations are complete, the device is closed by a call to SI_Close.
These functions are called for reading and writing data to the USB
interface from the MEX program file.
2.5. MEX interface
The core of the work is in the development of a MEX (MATLAB
executable) file in C language whose functions are called from
MATLAB. Also the MEX integrates the USBXpress DLL for connec-
tivity with the microcontroller. Thus the MEX file acts as the interface
between the MATLAB and the microcontroller. The MEX header file
contains the function declarations. The MEX C++ file includes the
‘SiUSBXp.h’ file for the MEX file, which in-turn calls the functions
of the ‘SiUSBXp.dll’. The flowchart of a function for reading the
TxFPGA parameters is given in Fig. 4.

Start

USB_Clock_Start
USB_Init
Port Initialisation
Timer Initialisation

Initial Configuration of
Interfaces and Devices

Wait for Interrupt

Device Suspend
Interrupt Stop
Type
USBXpress
Block Read

Case 1
T Write to TxFPGA
F
Case 2 Write to RxFPGA
F T
Case 3 Write to ADC
T
F
Case 4 Write to PHY
F T
Case 5 Read from TxFPGA
F T
Case 6 Read from RxFPGA
F T Block
Case 7 Read from ADC Write
F T
Case 8 Read from PHY
F T

Fig. 3. Flowchart of microcontroller firmware.

 J.R. Raj et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 19 (2016) 964–969 967

SI_GetNumDevices
F Ethernet
Case Success Return Error
MAC
T
SI_GetProductString Ethernet
T
F PHY
Case Success Return Error
T
Rx FPGA
SI_SetTimeouts
Micro
T
F controller
Case Success Return Error
T
SI_Open

F
Case Success Return Error
T
SI_Write
F Tx FPGA Receiver & ADC
Case Success Return Error
T
Fig. 5. Ultrasound scanner prototype hardware.
SI_CheckRXQueue
<1
Bytes in Queue

microcontroller interface. The AD9272 configurations include the

SI_Read
F
Case Success Return Error
T ferent ultrasound channels are performed by configuring the pulsers
SI_Close
F ration parameters are coded as binary values and passed to the
Case Success Return Error
T individual configuration are also read and written through this
Return Data
Fig. 4. MEX function flowchart for reading a register value.
Similarly the other required functions are also built in the MEX
file. The required Silicon Laboratories library files SiUSBXp.dll,
SiUSBXp.h, SiUSBXp.lib and SiUSBXp.exp are placed in the same
project folder. The MEX file is compiled into a DLL by using MATLAB
linked Visual C++ compiler. The MEX file can be compiled directly
from the project using the Visual C++ application also. The DLL
created in this case is with name ‘USConfig.dll’. The library file
‘USConfig.lib’ containing all the function names is also placed in the
same folder of the project.
The MATLAB program directly calls the MEX functions from the
MATLAB file or command prompt using ‘loadlibrary’ and ‘calllib’ func-
tions of MATLAB. These functions are suitably included as part of
the MATLAB GUI code wherever required.
USBXpress comes with its own driver that needs to be in-
stalled on the host computer. Once the driver is installed, the host
computer automatically recognizes the microprocessor when it is
plugged in.
3. Results
A prototype developed for the ultrasound scanner with USB in-
terface toward the MATLAB GUI is shown in Fig. 5. The prototype
has the Silicon Laboratories C8051F340 microcontroller, Xilinx FPGAs
and ADCs (AD9272) from Analog Devices. It has the microcontroller
programming header as well as the USB interface. The different com-
ponents above in the hardware are marked in Fig. 5.
The MATLAB GUI is shown in Fig. 6. The various ADC, FPGA, PHY,
etc. configurations are performed from this GUI using the button
click functions of the GUI buttons. These functions in turn call the
MEX interface functions and pass the required values toward the
LAN Gain, VGA Gain, AAF upper and lower cutoff frequencies,
enabling/disabling of different test patterns, etc. The enabling of dif-
through the TxFPGA by way of microcontroller. All these configu-
microcontroller. The various register values in these devices for their
interface.
Finally the start and stop of ultrasound scan with the proto-
type is also controlled through the microcontrollers by configuration
of the FPGAs in transmit and receive directions. For phantom testing,
an Agar–Agar phantom was prepared. The ultrasound scan image
is taken using a phantom with an inclusion as shown in Fig. 7. The
image is taken using a linear array transducer probe at 4 MHz. The
receive beamforming, image and video processing algorithms like
smoothening, sharpening, histogram equalization etc. are per-
formed in MATLAB. The receive beamforming involved delay and
sum algorithm of the simultaneously received channels. The posi-
tion of the inclusion as well as the depth of the phantom is marked
in Fig. 7.
4. Conclusion and discussion
The MATLAB interfacing with microcontroller is a major break-
through in the design of the ultrasound machine. This enabled
various signal, image and video processing requirements to be easily
carried out using the MATLAB built-in functions [13]. The raw data
captured were digitized and sent to MATLAB for further process-
ing. Thus many of the hardware processing were transferred to
software algorithms in MATLAB, like the beamforming, etc., in host
computer, thus reducing the size and complexity of the hardware.
The software processing of Doppler ultrasound system with USB-
based high data rate communication is presented [21], where the
digital signal processing is shifted from hardware to software al-
gorithms. This also helped in the development of an ultrasound
machine suited for tele-medicine applications [23].
This interfacing has larger implications in other wide areas of
microcontroller control and programming, and hence is a very in-
novative approach. This also has many applications in areas of
sensors, including medical electronics. There are large numbers of
implementations of microcontroller interfacing with native ‘C’ or
968 J.R. Raj et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 19 (2016) 964–969
Pulser channel enabling
Read or Write Configuration Register Values
Fig. 6. MATLAB GUI for configuration of various scanner parameters.
Java applications. However there are no such implementations avail-
able for the interfacing of the microcontroller with MATLAB.
In this application, the data received from the ultrasound trans-
ducers are captured as Ethernet packets through the Ethernet
interface. As a future step, capturing the packets through the USB
interface can also be implemented.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Department of Science and Technology,
Government of India for providing financial support for this project
with Grant Number SR/WOS-A/ET-24/2008. The authors also state
that the sponsor does not have any role in study design; collec-
tion, analysis and interpretation of data; writing of the report; and
in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Reflection by
inclusion
Reflection from
bottom surface
Phantom with inclusion
Fig. 7. Ultrasound image of a phantom with inclusion captured in the prototype.
ADC configuration
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