Method of forming a transducer controller and circuit therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10179346-B2
Application number	US-201615284867-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 4, 2016
Priority date	Oct 21, 2015
Publication date	Jan 15, 2019
Grant date	Jan 15, 2019

Abstract

In one embodiment, a transducer controller is configured to form a drive signal with a first frequency to drive a transducer. The drive signal has a period and a half-period and drives the transducer for a first portion of the half-period. The transducer controller is configured to, for a second portion of the half-period, sense a voltage formed by the transducer, measure portions of the voltage and estimate a phase error between the first frequency and a resonant frequency of the transducer, and to adjust the first frequency to a second frequency that reduces the phase error.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of forming a transducer controller comprising:
configuring a transducer controller to form a drive signal at a first frequency that forms a drive period and a drive half-period;
configuring the transducer controller to drive a transducer with the drive signal for a first portion of a drive half-period;
configuring the transducer controller to sense a reverberation voltage formed by the transducer for a second portion of the drive half-period;
configuring the transducer controller to measure portions of the reverberation voltage and estimate a phase error between the first frequency and a resonant frequency of the transducer; and
configuring the transducer controller to adjust the first frequency to a second frequency that reduces the phase error.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring the transducer controller to adjust the first frequency includes configuring the transducer controller to adjust the first frequency to the second frequency incrementally for a first number of subsequent drive periods.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring the transducer controller to measure the reverberation voltage includes configuring the transducer controller to calculate a curvature of a waveform of the voltage and to estimate the phase error from the curvature.

4. The method of claim 1 further including configuring the transducer controller to adjust the first frequency to the second frequency that is substantially equal to the resonant frequency of the transducer.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring the transducer controller to drive the transducer includes configuring the transducer controller to form the drive signal to drive the transducer for only the first portion of the drive half-period.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring the transducer controller to sense the reverberation voltage includes configuring the transducer controller to form a HiZ interval during the second half-period and to sense the reverberation voltage during the HiZ interval.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring the transducer controller to estimate the phase error includes configuring the transducer controller to measure a value of the reverberation at one or more time intervals during the second half-period and determine a ratio of the one or more values.

8. The method of claim 7 further including comparing the ratio to a theoretically calculated value and determine a difference between the ratio and the theoretically calculated value and using the difference to determine how far to adjust the first frequency.

9. The method of claim 1 further including configuring the transducer controller to form the drive signal with a substantially zero value for a third portion of the half-period, wherein the third portion is formed after the first portion and one of prior to the second portion or after the second portion.

10. A method of forming a transducer controller comprising:
configuring the transducer controller to form a drive signal at a first frequency that forms a drive period and a drive half-period;
configuring the transducer controller to drive a transducer with the drive signal for a first portion of a drive half-period;
configuring the transducer controller to sense in a second portion of the drive half-period a reverberation signal formed by the transducer in response to the drive signal;
configuring the transducer controller to determine a phase error between the first frequency and a frequency of the reverberation signal; and
configuring the transducer controller to adjust the first frequency to a second frequency that reduces the phase error.

11. The method of claim 10 further including forming the transducer controller to include a non-transitory computer readable medium having a program stored therein.

12. The method of claim 11 further including forming the transducer controller to operate according to the program.

13. The method of claim 10 further including configuring the transducer controller to form an immediately subsequent second period of the drive signal wherein the second period has the second duration.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein configuring the transducer controller to determine the phase error includes configuring the transducer controller to measure values of the reverberation signal at a plurality of times during the second portion of the drive half-period.

15. The method of claim 14 further including configuring the transducer controller to form a ratio of two or more of the values and to compare the ratio to a theoretical ratio value.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein configuring the transducer controller to determine the phase error includes configuring the transducer controller to determine a time for the reverberation signal value to substantially cross a threshold value, and to compare the time to a theoretically determined time.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein configuring the transducer controller to sense in a second portion of the drive half-period a reverberation signal includes configuring the transducer controller to place outputs of the transducer controller in a high impedance state during the second portion of the drive half-period and to sense the reverberation voltage during the high impedance state.

18. A method of forming a transducer controller comprising:
configuring the transducer controller to form a drive signal at a first frequency that forms a drive period and a drive half-period;
configuring the transducer controller to drive a transducer with the drive signal for a at least first portion of the drive half-period;
configuring the transducer controller to sense in a second portion of the drive half-period a reverberation signal formed by the transducer in response to the drive signal wherein the transducer controller is configured to ignore the reverberation signal responsively to transitions of the drive signal;
configuring the transducer controller to determine a phase error between the first frequency and a frequency of the reverberation signal; and
configuring the transducer controller to adjust the first frequency to a second frequency that is closer to a reverberation frequency of the transducer than the first frequency.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein configuring the transducer controller to sense the reverberation signal includes configuring the transducer controller to mask-off the reverberation signal approximately at transitions of the drive signal.

20. The method of claim 18 including configuring the second frequency to be substantially equal to the reverberation frequency.

Assignees

• Semiconductor Components Ind Llc

Inventors

• Kutej Jiri
• Horsky Pavel

Classifications

• G01S7/52004

  Means for monitoring or calibrating (short-range imaging G01S7/5205) · CPC title

• H03H2003/0464

  operating on an additional circuit element, e.g. a passive circuit element connected to the resonator · CPC title

• B06B1/0261 Primary

  taken from a transducer or electrode connected to the driving transducer · CPC title

• G01S2007/52009

  of sensor obstruction, e.g. dirt- or ice-coating · CPC title

• G01S15/08

  Systems for measuring distance only (indirect measurement G01S15/46) · CPC title