US 2025/0146979 A1 · PHASE-BASED APPROACH FOR ULTRASONIC INSPECTION

Abstract

A phase-based approach can be used for one or more of acquisition, storage, or subsequent analysis, e.g., A-scan reconstruction or Total Focusing Method imaging, in support of acoustic inspection. For example, binarization or other quantization technique can be used to compress a data volume associated with time-series signal acquisition. A representation of phase information from the time-series signal can be generated, such as by processing the binarized or otherwise quantized time-series signal. Using the representation of the phase information, a phase summation technique can be used to perform one or more of A-scan reconstruction, such as for pulse-echo A-scan inspection, or a TFM imaging technique can be used, as illustrative examples. In such a phase summation approach, time-series representations of phase data can be summed, such as where each time-series can be delayed (or phase rotated) by an appropriate delay value and then aggregated.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A machine-implemented method for acoustic evaluation of a target, the method comprising:

generating respective acoustic transmission events via selected transmitting ones of a plurality of electroacoustic transducers;
in response to the respective acoustic transmission events, receiving respective acoustic echo signals from other receiving ones of the plurality of electroacoustic transducers;
single-bit quantizing the respective received acoustic echo signals to provide binarized representations;
and
reconstructing an instantaneous phase signal of at least one respective quantized acoustic echo signal from a binarized representation of the at least one respective quantized acoustic echo signal.

2 more elements

An apparatus for acoustic evaluation of a target, the apparatus comprising:

drive circuitry to generate respective acoustic transmission events via selected transmitting ones of a plurality of electroacoustic transducers;
receiver circuitry comprising a coherent receiver topology to provide in-phase and quadrature representations of respective acoustic echo signals from other receiving ones of the plurality of electroacoustic transducers;
analog-to-digital conversion circuitry to binarize the respective acoustic echo signals;
and
processor circuitry configured to:
generate respective acoustic transmission events via selected transmitting ones of a plurality of electroacoustic transducers using the drive circuitry;
in response to the respective acoustic transmission events, receive respective acoustic echo signals from other receiving ones of the plurality of electroacoustic transducers using the receiver circuitry;
single-bit quantize the respective received acoustic echo signals to provide binarized representations using the analog-to-digital conversion circuitry;
and
reconstruct an instantaneous phase signal of at least one respective quantized acoustic echo signal from a binarized representation of the at least one respective quantized acoustic echo signal.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Phase-based approach for ultrasonic inspection

Life of this patent

Phase-based approach for ultrasonic inspection

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20