Marine multibeam sonar device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9784826-B2
Application number	US-201514604335-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2015
Priority date	Jul 15, 2014
Publication date	Oct 10, 2017
Grant date	Oct 10, 2017

Abstract

A marine multibeam sonar device comprises a processing element and a transmitter. The processing element generates a plurality of transmit transducer electronic signals and inverts a polarity of a first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals. The transmitter is in communication with the processing element and includes a plurality of transmit electronic circuits and a plurality of transmit transducers. Each transmit electronic circuit receives and processes one of the transmit transducer electronic signals, wherein a first portion of the circuits re-inverts the polarity of the first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals. The transmit transducers receive the processed transmit transducer electronic signals from the transmit electronic circuits and generate a sonar beam.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A marine multibeam sonar device comprising:
a processing element configured to generate a plurality of transmit transducer electronic signals and invert a polarity of a first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals; and
a transmitter in communication with the processing element, the transmitter including—
a plurality of transmit electronic circuits, each configured to receive and process one of the transmit transducer electronic signals, wherein a first portion of the transmit electronic circuits is configured to re-invert the polarity of the first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals, and
a plurality of transmit transducers configured to receive the processed transmit transducer electronic signals from the transmit electronic circuits and to generate a sonar beam.

2. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals includes the transmit transducer electronic signals generated for the even-numbered transmit electronic circuits.

3. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 1 , wherein each of a first portion of the transmit transducers, equivalent in number to the first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals, receives one of the re-inverted processed polarity transmit transducer electronic signals.

4. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 1 , wherein the transmit electronic circuits each include a transformer with a primary configured to receive one of the transmit transducer electronic signals and a center-tapped secondary including a positive voltage terminal and a negative voltage terminal.

5. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 4 , wherein each transmit transducer includes a first terminal and a second terminal and, for each of a first portion of the transmit transducers equivalent in number to the first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals, the first terminal is connected to the negative voltage terminal of one of the transformers and the second terminal is connected to the positive voltage terminal.

6. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 4 , wherein for the rest of the transmit transducers, the first terminal is connected to the positive voltage terminal of one of the transformers and the second terminal is connected to the negative voltage terminal.

7. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 1 , wherein each of the transmit transducer electronic signals includes a binary bitstream.

8. A marine multibeam sonar device comprising:
a receiver configured to receive reflections of a sonar beam, the receiver including—
a plurality of receive channels, each receive channel including a receive transducer configured to generate a receive transducer electronic signal with a polarity, wherein the polarity of a first portion of the receive transducer electronic signals is inverted compared with the polarity of the rest of the receive transducer electronic signals, and
electronic circuitry configured to receive the receive transducer electronic signals and generate a receive signal including data from each of the receive transducer electronic signals;

a memory element;
a processing element in communication with the receiver and the memory element, the processing element being configured to—
receive the receive signal,
re-invert the polarity of the data from the first portion of the receive transducer electronic signals,
generate sonar data from the receive transducer electronic signals,
generate a plurality of transmit transducer electronic signals, and
invert a polarity of a first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals; and

a transmitter in communication with the processing element, the transmitter including—
a plurality of transmit electronic circuits, each configured to receive and process one of the transmit transducer electronic signals, wherein a first portion of the transmit electronic circuits is configured to re-invert the polarity of the first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals, and
a plurality of transmit transducers configured to receive the processed transmit transducer electronic signals from the transmit electronic circuits and to generate the sonar beam.

9. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 8 , wherein each of a first portion of the transmit transducers, equivalent in number to the first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals, receives one of the re-inverted processed polarity transmit transducer electronic signals.

10. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 8 , wherein the transmit electronic circuits each include a transformer with a primary configured to receive one of the transmit transducer electronic signals and a center-tapped secondary including a positive voltage terminal and a negative voltage terminal.

11. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 10 , wherein each transmit transducer includes a first terminal and a second terminal and, for each of a first portion of the transmit transducers equivalent in number to the first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals, the first terminal is connected to the negative voltage terminal of one of the transformers and the second terminal is connected to the positive voltage terminal.

12. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 11 , wherein for the rest of the transmit transducers, the first terminal is connected to the positive voltage terminal of one of the transformers and the second terminal is connected to the negative voltage terminal.

13. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 8 , wherein the receive signal further includes a stream of binary data packets with each packet including data from a time sliced portion of one of the receive transducer electronic signals, and the processing element is further configured to deserialize the receive signal and retrieve the binary data packet for each receive channel contained in the receive signal.

14. The marine multibeam sonar device of claim 13 , wherein the data from a first portion of the binary data packets, equivalent in number to the first portion of the receive transducer electronic signals, has an inverted polarity compared with the polarity of the rest of the binary data packets.

Assignees

• Garmin Switzerland Gmbh

Inventors

• Matson John A
• Maguire Brian T
• Coleman Aaron R
• Hanoch Jeffrey W

Classifications

• G01S7/6272

  producing cursor lines and indicia by electronic means · CPC title

• G01S15/06

  Systems determining the position data of a target · CPC title

• G01S7/6281

  Composite displays, e.g. split-screen, multiple images · CPC title

• G10K11/004

  Mounting transducers, e.g. provided with mechanical moving or orienting device (mountings specially adapted to a particular sound-producing device, see the preceding groups G10K1/00 - G10K9/00, e.g. G10K1/26, G10K1/28, G10K9/22; arrangements of sonic watch equipment on submarines B63G8/39; buoys B63B22/00) · CPC title

• G01S15/8902

  Side-looking sonar · CPC title