Wideband sonar with pulse compression
AssigneeFLIR Systems, Inc.
InventorsPaul Stokes, David Wellcome
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sonar transmitter includes digital logic that controls switches coupled to a primary coil of a transformer. The switches are driven to produce at least one voltage pulse across a secondary coil for the transformer to produce a series of voltage pulses approximating the desired signal. The transformer may comprise: a secondary coil having a plurality of windings arranged into a first section, a middle section, and a final section; and a primary coil winding wound only with the secondary coil windings forming the middle section.
Claims20
A wideband sonar transmitter, comprising:
- a power supply;
- a pair of switches;
- and
- a wideband transformer having a secondary coil for driving a transducer and a primary coil having a center tap driven by the power supply, wherein a first end of the primary coil couples to ground through a first one of the switches, and a second end of the primary coil couples to ground through a second one of the switches.
A method of generating wideband sonar pulses, comprising;
- in digital logic, analyzing a desired wideband sonar signal to identify positive half cycles and negative half cycles of the desired signal;
- and
- with regard to each half cycle, approximating the half cycle by driving switches coupled to a transformer's primary coil to produce at least one voltage pulse across a secondary coil for the transformer to produce a series of voltage pulses approximating the desired signal.
A sonar, comprising
- a power supply;
- a pair of switches;
- and
- a power amplifier including a wideband transformer having a secondary coil for driving a transducer and a center-tapped primary coil driven by the power supply, the center tap coupling to the pair of switches, wherein the wideband transformer includes:
- a secondary coil including a plurality of windings arranged into a first section, a middle section, and a final section;
- and
- a primary coil winding wound only with the secondary coil windings forming the middle section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.