US 4,287,580 A · Miniaturized scan within a pulse sonar

Abstract

An improvement for a sonar is provided wherein the improvement includes a ne array of N listening transducer elements, each listening element being capable of receiving an acoustic signal and outputting a corresponding electrical signal. A plurality of beamformers is provided wherein each beamformer has an input and an output, the input of each beamformer receiving the output from each listening element. A switching device is interconnected between the listening elements and the beamformers for alternately switching the outputs of the listening elements to each beamformer between two modes, one mode being a predetermined order and the other mode being an inversion of the predetermined order. With this arrangement only half the normal number of beamformers is required, thereby significantly reducing the weight and size of the sonar.

Claims9

Dependent claims

In a scanning sonar the improvement comprising:

a line array of N listening transducer elements, each listening element being capable of receiving an acoustic signal and outputting a corresponding electrical signal;
a plurality of beamformers, each beamformer having an input and an output, the input of each beamformer receiving the outputs of the listening elements;
and
switch means interconnected between the listening elements and the beamformers for alternately switching the outputs of the listening elements to each beamformer between two modes, one mode being a predetermined order and the other mode being an inversion of said predetermined order.

1 more element

A miniaturized scan within a pulse sonar comprising:

a line array of N listening transducer elements, each listening element being capable of receiving an acoustic signal and outputting a corresponding electrical signal;
a plurality of beamformers, each beamformer having an input and an output, the input of each beamformer receiving the output from each listening element;
switch means interconnected between the listening elements and the beamformers for alternately switching the outputs of the listening elements to each beamformer between two modes, one mode being a predetermined order and the other mode being an inversion of said predetermined order;
display means;
commutator means receiving the output of each beamformer and connected to the display means;
and
projector means for transmitting a sound pulse;
synchronization and clocking means connected to the commutator, display means and projector means for activating the projector means to transmit a sound pulse, and then activating the commutator means and display means in synchronization to scan the outputs of the beamformers and present the result on the display means.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Miniaturized scan within a pulse sonar

Life of this patent

Miniaturized scan within a pulse sonar

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims9