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US 12,771,996 B2Granted
Reducing or eliminating transducer reverberation
AssigneeSemiconductor Components Industries, LLC
InventorsMarek Hustava, Tomas Suchy, Michal Navratil, Jiri Kutej
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An obstacle monitoring system includes a transducer that receives an ultrasonic echo from an obstacle and generates a signal based on the echo. The system further includes a controller coupled to the transducer that is calibrated based on a frequency response of the transducer and a coupling circuit. The system further includes circuitry generating a damping current, controlled by the controller, that reduces or eliminates reverberation of the transducer.
Claims19
A system comprising:
- a transmit amplifier configured to drive a piezoelectric transducer to generate an ultrasonic pulse;
- a receive amplifier configured to detect a receive signal from the piezoelectric transducer including an echo of the ultrasonic pulse from an obstacle;
- an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to digitize the receive signal into a digitized receive signal;
- a digital damping filter configured to derive a digital damping signal from the digitized receive signal;
- and
- a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) configured to convert the digital damping signal into a damping signal coupled to the transmit amplifier to produce a damping current, the damping current providing a digitally created admittance parallel to the piezoelectric transducer to reduce damping time,
- the digital damping filter being calibrated to reduce dependence of the damping time on temperature.
4 more elements
A method comprising:
- using a piezoelectric transducer to transmit an ultrasonic pulse and to obtain a receive signal, the receive signal including an ultrasonic echo from an obstacle;
- digitizing the receive signal into a digitized receive signal;
- using a digital damping filter to convert the digitized receive signal into a digital damping signal;
- converting the digital damping signal into a damping current configured to act as a digitally created admittance parallel to the piezoelectric transducer to reduce damping time;
- and
- calibrating the digital damping filter to reduce dependence of the damping time on temperature.
3 more elements
A circuit comprising:
- an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to couple to a piezoelectric transducer configured to receive ultrasonic echoes from an obstacle in response to ultrasonic pulses, the ADC configured to convert a signal from the piezoelectric transducer into a digitized signal;
- a finite impulse response (FIR) filter configured to convert the digitized signal into a digital damping signal;
- a controller configured to calibrate filter coefficients of the FIR filter based on a pulse response of the piezoelectric transducer;
- a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) configured to convert the digital damping signal into a damping current that provides a digitally created admittance parallel to the piezoelectric transducer to reduce damping time.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.