A method and a device perform data communication between a superordinate computer system of an ultrasonic measurement system and an associated ultrasonic sensor via a modified UART data interface. The method and device exit the UART protocol and use a special signaling protocol and a modification of the UART data interface for the duration of an ultrasonic measurement phase to transmit the arrival of echoes at the ultrasonic sensor promptly to the superordinate computer system and return to the UART protocol for the data transmission from the ultrasonic sensor to the superordinate computer system after the end of the ultrasonic measurement phase.

An ultrasonic apparatus includes a transmitting circuit, an ultrasonic transducer, a receiving circuit, and a capacitance measuring circuit. The ultrasonic transducer is a three-terminal ultrasonic transducer that includes a transmitting electrode, a receiving electrode, and a common electrode. The transmitting circuit outputs a driving signal to the transmitting electrode to cause the ultrasonic transducer to transmit ultrasonic waves. The receiving circuit receives a receive signal from the receiving electrode. The capacitance measuring circuit is electrically connected to the receiving electrode to measure the electrostatic capacitance of the ultrasonic transducer.

A leaky-wave antenna for fluid environments includes a waveguide cavity defined by a waveguide wall. The waveguide cavity is filled with a waveguide fluid. The waveguide walls are made of either an anisotropic material that utilize one of orthotropic stiffness of the anisotropic material to control mode conversion, a band gap material to approximate an acoustically rigid boundary, and a combination of the two materials.

A filtering device includes a filtering circuit that connects a voltage source to a sensor and a switching circuit connected in parallel with the filtering circuit that allows current from the voltage source to bypass the filtering circuit and flow through the switching circuit. The switching circuit receives a mode signal from the sensor that indicates whether the sensor is in a high current or a low current mode, the switching circuit closes when the sensor is in the high current mode, and the switching circuit is opens when the sensor is in the low current mode.

The present invention discloses a transmitting and receiving device for an ultrasonic system, which comprises a transmitter, a receiver and at least two switch circuits connected in series. The transmitter is coupled to an ultrasonic transducer and generates high voltage signals to the ultrasonic transducer during a transmitting mode. The receiver is coupled to the ultrasonic transducer via the at least two switch circuits and receives low voltage signals from the ultrasonic transducer during a receiving mode. The at least two switch circuits are configured to share voltage drop of the high voltage signals to isolate the high voltage signals during the transmitting mode and allow the low voltage signals to pass through during the receiving mode. It also discloses an ultrasonic system having the transmitting and receiving device.

An ultrasound circuit comprising a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) with built-in time gain compensation functionality is described. The TIA is coupled to an ultrasonic transducer to amplify an electrical signal generated by the ultrasonic transducer in response to receiving an ultrasound signal. The TIA is, in some cases, followed by further analog and digital processing circuitry.

An ultrasound circuit comprising a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) with built-in time gain compensation functionality is described. The TIA is coupled to an ultrasonic transducer to amplify an electrical signal generated by the ultrasonic transducer in response to receiving an ultrasound signal. The TIA is, in some cases, followed by further analog and digital processing circuitry.

A method and system is disclosed for measuring a characteristic loop sensitivity (S.sub.LC) for an acoustic transducer. A pulse signal is employed as a wideband reference signal V.sub.r(t); and, in a pulse-echo measurement a corresponding wideband echo signal V.sub.e(t) is obtained. A characteristic loop sensitivity (S.sub.LC) for the acoustic transducer is defined as a ratio of an energy density of V.sub.e(t) to an energy density of V.sub.r(t) in decibel, in which the energy density of a given signal is calculated as a ratio of an energy of the signal to a bandwidth of the signal.

A method and system is disclosed for measuring a characteristic loop sensitivity (S.sub.LC) for an acoustic transducer. A pulse signal is employed as a wideband reference signal V.sub.r(t); and, in a pulse-echo measurement a corresponding wideband echo signal V.sub.e(t) is obtained. A characteristic loop sensitivity (S.sub.LC) for the acoustic transducer is defined as a ratio of an energy density of V.sub.e(t) to an energy density of V.sub.r(t) in decibel, in which the energy density of a given signal is calculated as a ratio of an energy of the signal to a bandwidth of the signal.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods and computer programs for ultrasonic proximity-detection. In one embodiment, processing circuitry comprises: a first input for receiving an indication of an interrogating ultrasonic signal; a second input for receiving a detected ultrasonic return signal; an adaptive filter, coupled to the first and second inputs, operative to estimate a transfer function between the interrogating ultrasonic signal and the detected ultrasonic return signal; a feature extract module, coupled to the adaptive filter, operative to calculate statistical moments of one or more of: the estimated transfer function; an estimated ultrasonic return signal, calculated based on the interrogating ultrasonic signal and the estimated transfer function; and an error signal, representing the error between the estimated ultrasonic return signal and the detected ultrasonic return signal; and a classifier module, coupled to the feature extract module, operative to determine the presence of a nearby object based on the statistical moments.