Ultrasonic transducer system and method using selective interleaved excitation pulse frequency

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10378938-B2
Application number	US-201514852005-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2015
Priority date	Sep 12, 2014
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

A transducer system with a transducer and circuitry for applying a pulse train to excite the transducer. The circuitry for applying a pulse train selects a first set having a first number of pulses at a first frequency and a second set of pulses having a second number of pulses at a second frequency differing from the first frequency. At least one pulse from the first set is located in the pulse train between one or more of the pulses at the second frequency.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a transducer;
a clock circuit configured to provide a clock signal; and
circuitry coupled to the transducer and to the clock circuit, the circuitry configured to: by integer division of the clock signal, form a first set of pulses having a first frequency, and form a second set of pulses having a second frequency differing from the first frequency; and apply a pulse train to excite the transducer, the pulse train comprising at least one pulse from the first set between two or more pulses from the second set.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transducer configured is a first transducer configured to produce a transmitted signal in response to the pulse train, and the system further comprises a second transducer configured to produce a received signal in response to the transmitted signal.

3. The system of claim 2 , further comprising circuitry configured to determine a performance metric in response to the received signal produced by the second transducer.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein: the pulse train is a first pulse train; and the circuitry is configured to apply a second pulse train to excite the transducer, the first pulse train having a different number of pulses at the first frequency as compared to the second pulse train.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the first pulse train has a different number of pulses at the second frequency as compared to the second pulse train.

6. The system of claim 5 , further comprising circuitry configured to determine a respective performance metric in response to the received signal produced by the second transducer responsive to at least one of the first and second pulse trains.

7. A system, comprising:
a first transducer configured to produce transmitted signals in response to first and second pulse trains;
a second transducer configured to produce received signals in response to the transmitted signals;
circuitry coupled to the second transducer and configured to determine a respective performance metric in response to at least one of the received signals produced by the second transducer; and
circuitry coupled to the first transducer and configured to: select a first set of pulses at a first frequency and a second set of pulses at a second frequency differing from the first frequency; and apply first and second pulse trains to excite the first transducer, each of the first and second pulse trains having at least one pulse from the first set between two or more pulses from the second set;
the first pulse train having a different number of pulses at the first frequency as compared to the second pulse train and a different number of pulses at the second frequency as compared to the second pulse train in response to an optimum performance metric indicated from the respective performance metric.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the circuitry coupled to the first transducer is configured to apply the first and second pulse trains to excite the first transducer repeatedly at fixed periodic times.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the fixed periodic times are separated by approximately 24 hours.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transducer is a first transducer configured to produce a transmitted signal in response to the pulse train; and the system further comprises a second transducer positioned and configured to produce a first received signal in response to the transmitted signal from the first transducer; and the first transducer is positioned and configured to produce a second received signal in response to a transmitted signal from the second transducer.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein: the pulse train is a first pulse train; and the circuitry is configured to apply a second pulse train to excite the second transducer.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one pulse from the first set is located in the pulse train in an evenly-spaced arrangement between the two or more pulses from the second set.

13. A system, comprising:
a first transducer configured to produce a transmitted signal in response to a pulse train;
circuitry coupled to the first transducer and configured to: select a first set of pulses having a first frequency and a second set of pulses having a second frequency differing from the first frequency; and apply the pulse train to excite the first transducer, in which the pulse train comprises at least one pulse from the first set between two or more pulses from the second set;
a second transducer configured to produce a received signal in response to the transmitted signal; and
a pipe;
the first transducer and the second transducer being positioned in a fixed relationship relative to the pipe, so flow in the pipe is measurable in response to the received signal.

14. A method of operating a transducer system, the method comprising:
applying a pulse train to excite a transducer to produce a transmitted signal in response to the pulse train, wherein applying the pulse train comprises selecting a first set of pulses having a first frequency and a second set of pulses having a second frequency differing from the first frequency, in which the pulse train comprises at least one pulse from the first set between two or more pulses from the second set, the first and second sets being selected in response to an optimum performance metric; and
producing a received signal in response to the transmitted signal.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the transducer is a first transducer; and producing the received signal comprises producing a received signal by a second transducer.

16. The method of claim 15 , and further comprising determining a performance metric in response to the received signal produced by the second transducer.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein: applying the pulse train comprises applying first and second pulse trains; and the first pulse train has a different number of pulses at the first frequency as compared to the second pulse train.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the first pulse train has a different number of pulses at the second frequency as compared to the second pulse train.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising determining a respective performance metric in response to the received signal produced by the second transducer responsive to at least one of the first and second pulse trains.

20. A method of operating a transducer system, the method comprising:
producing, by a first transducer, transmitted signals in response to first and second pulse trains;
producing, by a second transducer, received signals in response to the transmitted signals;
determining a respective performance metric in response to at least one of the received signals produced by the second transducer;
selecting a first set of pulses at a first frequency and a second set of pulses at a second frequency differing from the first frequency; and
applying first and second pulse trains to excite the first transducer, each of the first and second pulse trains having at least one pulse from the first set between two or more pulses from the second set;
the first pulse train having a different number of pulses at the first frequency as compared to the second pulse train and a different number of pulses at the second frequency as compared to the second pulse train in response to an optimum performance metric indicated from the respective performance metric.

21. A system, comprising:
a transducer; and
circuitry coupled to the transducer and configur

Assignees

• Texas Instruments Inc

Inventors

• Dabak Anand
• Sathyanarayana Amardeep
• Reynoso Luis Fernando
• Ramamurthy Venkataramanan

Classifications

• G01F1/712

  using auto-correlation or cross-correlation detection means · CPC title

• G01F1/667

  Arrangements of transducers for ultrasonic flowmeters; Circuits for operating ultrasonic flowmeters · CPC title

• G01F1/66 Primary

  by measuring frequency, phase shift or propagation time of electromagnetic or other waves, e.g. using ultrasonic flowmeters · CPC title