Sonar assembly for reduced interference

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9268020-B2
Application number	US-201213370633-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 10, 2012
Priority date	Feb 10, 2012
Publication date	Feb 23, 2016
Grant date	Feb 23, 2016

Abstract

A sonar transducer assembly includes a housing mountable to a water craft capable of traversing a surface of a body of water. The sonar transducer assembly includes a linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element positioned within the housing, aimed downwardly, and configured to transmit sonar pulses in the form of a fan-shaped beam perpendicular to a plane of the surface of the water, and further configured to receive sonar returns from the sonar pulses and convert sound energy of the sonar returns into downscan sonar return data. The sonar transducer assembly also includes at least one sidescan receive-only transducer element positioned within the housing, aimed outwardly and downwardly, and configured to receive sonar returns from the sonar pulses and convert sound energy of the sonar returns into sidescan sonar return data.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A transducer assembly comprising:
a housing mountable to a water craft capable of traversing a surface of a body of water;
a linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element positioned within the housing and aimed downwardly, and configured to transmit sonar pulses in the form of a fan-shaped beam in at least a direction substantially perpendicular to a plane corresponding to the surface of the body of water, wherein the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element is further configured to receive sonar returns from the sonar pulses and convert sound energy of the sonar returns into downscan sonar return data in the form of electrical signals representative of the sound energy, wherein the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element defines a substantially rectangular shape with a top surface, bottom surface, and opposing side surfaces;
sound-attenuating material configured to substantially attenuate transmission of sonar pulses therethrough, wherein the sound-attenuating material is positioned proximate to the top surface of the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element, and wherein the opposing side surfaces and bottom surface are substantially free of the sound-attenuating material such that the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element is configured to transmit sonar pulses from the bottom surface and opposing side surfaces; and
at least one sidescan receive-only transducer element positioned within the housing and aimed outwardly and downwardly, and configured to receive sonar returns from the sonar pulses transmitted at least from one of the opposing side surfaces of the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element and convert sound energy of the sonar returns into sidescan sonar return data in the form of electrical signals representative of the sound energy.

2. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 further comprising:
transmitter circuitry in communication with the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element, wherein the transmitter circuitry is configured to transfer a transmit signal to the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element to cause the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element to transmit the sonar pulses; and
receiver circuitry in communication with the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element and the at least one sidescan receive-only transducer element, wherein the receiver circuitry is configured to transfer said sonar return data from the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element and the at least one sidescan receive-only transducer element for processing and generation of sonar image data for display to a user.

3. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 further comprising a shield configured to substantially attenuate transmission of sonar pulses therethrough, wherein the shield is positioned adjacent to the sound-attenuating material proximate to the top surface of the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element, the opposing sides and bottom surface being free of the shield.

4. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the respective sonar pulses produced from each of the bottom surface and opposing side surfaces of the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element collectively provide substantially continuous sonar coverage from one side of the water craft to an opposite side of the water craft.

5. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one sidescan receive-only transducer element comprises a different material than the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element.

6. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element is configured to operate at a selected one of at least two selectable operating frequencies.

7. The transducer assembly according to claim 6 , wherein the selectable operating frequencies include about 455 kHz and about 800 kHz.

8. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the fan-shaped beam comprises a beamwidth of about 0.8 degrees by about 32 degrees or of about 1.4 degrees by about 56 degrees.

9. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one sidescan receive-only transducer element comprises a first sidescan receive-only transducer element and a second sidescan receive-only transducer element.

10. The transducer assembly according to claim 9 , wherein the first sidescan receive-only transducer element is positioned within the housing so as to be aimed about a 30 degree angle downward from the plane parallel to the surface of the water, and wherein the second sidescan receive-only transducer element is positioned within the housing so as to be aimed about a 30 degree angle downward from the plane parallel to the surface of the water.

11. The transducer assembly according to claim 9 , wherein the first sidescan receive-only transducer element faces substantially to the port side of the water craft, and wherein the second sidescan receive-only transducer element faces substantially to the starboard side of the water craft.

12. The transducer assembly according to claim 9 , wherein the first and second sidescan receive-only transducer elements are linear transducer elements.

13. The transducer assembly according to claim 12 , wherein a length of a rectangular face of each of the linear downscan and first and second linear sidescan transducer elements is about 204 mm and a width of the rectangular face of each of the transducer elements is about 3 mm.

14. The transducer assembly according to claim 9 , wherein the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element and the first and second sidescan receive-only transducer elements are positioned within the housing such that longitudinal lengths of each of the transducer elements are substantially parallel to each other.

15. The transducer assembly according to claim 9 , wherein the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element and the first and second sidescan receive-only transducer elements are positioned side-by-side with respect to each other.

16. The transducer assembly according to claim 9 , wherein the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element is positioned between the first sidescan receive-only transducer element and second sidescan receive-only transducer element.

17. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 , wherein each of the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element and the at least one sidescan receive-only transducer element is configured to communicate with a transceiver.

18. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 , wherein a length of a rectangular face of the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element is about 204 mm and a width of the rectangular face is about 3 mm.

19. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the fan-shaped beam comprises a beamwidth in a direction parallel to a longitudinal length of the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element less than about five percent as large as a beamwidth of the fan-shaped beam in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal length of the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element.

20. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the linear downscan transmit/receive transducer element is configured to generate sonar pulses defining a fan-shaped beam extending from one side of the water craft to an opposite side of the water craft.

21. The transducer assembly according to cl

Assignees

• Coleman Aaron Richard
• Navico Holding As

Inventors

• Coleman Aaron Richard

Classifications

• G01S7/521

  Constructional features · CPC title

• G01S15/003 Primary

  Bistatic sonar systems; Multistatic sonar systems · CPC title

• G10K11/002

  Devices for damping, suppressing, obstructing or conducting sound in acoustic devices (G10K1/06 - G10K1/10 take precedence; for electro-mechanical transducers for communication H04R3/002) · CPC title