A method of operating a PMUT electro-acoustical transducer, the method comprising: applying over an excitation interval to the transducer an excitation signal which is configured to emit corresponding ultrasound pulses towards a surrounding space, acquiring at a receiver reflected ultrasound pulses as reflected in said surrounding space, generating a reference echo signal, performing a cross-correlation of said acquired received ultrasound pulses with said reference echo signal, performing a measurement based on the cross-correlation results, in particular a measurement of the time of flight of the ultrasound pulses, wherein said reference echo is obtained by finding an oscillation frequency of the transmitter on the basis of a transmitter ringdown signal, finding an oscillation frequency of the receiver on the basis of a receiver ringdown signal, performing a frequency tuning respectively on the transmitter and the receiver on the basis of said respective oscillation frequencies, then sweeping an input frequency of the transmitter to find a frequency of the maximum displacement in the ringdown signal, performing a frequency tuning of the receiver at said frequency of the maximum displacement in the ringdown signal of the transmitter.

An ultrasound probe contains an array transducer and a microbeamformer coupled to elements of the array. The microbeamformer comprises analog to digital converters and digital beamforming circuitry for at least thirty-two digital channels in the microbeamformer. Preferably the analog to digital converters are low power ADCs for reduced power consumption in the probe. Integrated circuits of thirty-two channels can be cascaded to produce 64-channel and 128-channel digital microbeamformers for an ultrasound array probe.

The invention relates to a method for operating ultrasonic sensors) for a motor vehicle, including emitting a plurality of ultrasonic signals by respective ultrasonic sensors. The ultrasonic signals include a sequence of elementary signals. The elementary signals have signal pauses and a plurality of different signal pulses. The ultrasonic signals differ from one another by the sequence of the elementary signals. The method further includes receiving reflected ultrasonic signals, wherein the received ultrasonic signals are associated with the emitted ultrasonic signals on the basis of the sequences of the elementary signals.

A wideband sonar receiver is provided that includes: a selectable bandpass filter adapted to filter a received sonar signal to produce a filtered signal and a correlator adapted to correlate the baseband samples with baseband replica samples to provide a correlated signal. In addition, the wideband sonar receiver may include a shaping filter to shape unshaped received pulses. Finally, a variety of sonar processing algorithms are described with regard to reducing clutter and interference, target detection, and bottom detection.

An object detection device according to the present disclosure, installed in a vehicle, includes a plurality of ranging sensors and each including a transmitter configured to transmit ultrasonic waves and a receiver configured to receive reflected waves of the ultrasonic waves transmitted by the transmitter and reflected by an object around the vehicle, and processing circuitry configured to detect the object around the vehicle based on the reflected waves received by the receiver during a wave receiving period until a predetermined period of time elapses from transmission of the ultrasonic waves by the transmitter. The processing circuitry is configured to acquire an imaged image imaged by an in-vehicle camera that images surroundings of the vehicle. The processing circuitry is configured to determine whether a specific object is contained based on the imaged image. The processing circuitry is configured to set the wave receiving period from a first wave receiving period to a second wave receiving period longer than the first wave receiving period when the specific object is determined to be contained in the imaged image.

An ultrasonic sensing system includes: an amplifier including an input and an output; and an n-level comparator, coupled to the output of the amplifier, to compare an adjustable threshold voltage to an output signal from the output of the amplifier. N is greater than or equal to 1. The system also includes a noise power estimator, coupled to an output of the n-level comparator, to generate a noise power signal indicative of noise power of an input signal at the input of the amplifier. The system further includes a time-varying threshold circuit, coupled to the noise power estimator and the n-level comparator, to adjust the adjustable threshold voltage based on the noise power signal.

Distance-detection system includes a signal-generator configured to provide a drive signal and an ultrasound transducer having at least one ultrasonic element. The ultrasound transducer is configured to transmit a pulse of sound waves and detect reflected sound waves. The distance-detection system also includes a receiver configured to receive a detection signal from the ultrasound transducer. The detection signal includes a reverberation component representing reverberation of the ultrasound transducer and a reflected component representing reflected sound waves from the interface. The receiver is configured to receive a drive-cancellation signal that is inverted with respect to the reverberation component of the detection signal. The receiver is configured to determine a time-of-flight measurement based on the detection signal in which the reverberation component of the detection signal is reduced by the drive-cancellation signal.

A robotic device comprising a long-range sonar assembly configured to detect objects between 1000 mm to 9500 mm from the long range sonar assembly. The long-range sonar assembly comprises a flared bell housing and a transducer. The robotic device also comprises a transportation mechanism configured to move the robotic device in various directions in response to instructions from a processing device that is in communication with the ling-range sonar assembly and the transportation mechanism. The processing device may cause the long-range sonar assembly to, via the transducer transmit one or more pulses and receive the one or more pulses as echo pulses having reflected off an object in an environment. The processing device may then cause a transmitter to transmit instructions to the transportation mechanism to move the robotic device in the environment based on the received one or more pulses.

An object detection apparatus is provided with a distance measurement sensor that measures a distance to an object which exists in a surrounding area of a vehicle, by transmitting scanning waves to the surrounding of the vehicle and receiving reflection waves of the scanning waves, and an image acquiring section that is adopted to the vehicle, and is provided with an on-vehicle camera that captures images in the surrounding of the vehicle, the imaging acquiring section acquiring an image that is captured by the camera. The apparatus includes a determination section that determines whether, a predetermined object that is difficult to detect by the reflection waves of the distance measurement sensor is included in the object image, and a sensitivity control section that increases a sensitivity of the object detection by the distance measurement sensor and a vehicle control that is executed relative to the predetermined object as a target object.

Apparatus and method for optimizing an ultrasonic signal are provided, one of apparatus comprises, an ultrasonic signal sensing unit which transmits and receives an ultrasonic signal, a residual oscillation measurement unit which measures a first ringing time of the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the ultrasonic signal sensing unit, a comparison and calculation unit which compares the first ringing time with a pre-stored second ringing time and calculates a correction frequency based on the comparison result, an electrical damping pulse generation unit which generates an electrical damping pulse having the correction frequency and a control unit which controls the electrical damping pulse to be applied to the ultrasonic signal sensing unit.