METAL DETECTOR HAVING TRANSMITTER WITH ACTIVE MAGNETIC COMPENSATION
20230014749 · 2023-01-19
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
G01R33/091
PHYSICS
G01V3/165
PHYSICS
International classification
Abstract
A metal detector includes at least one sensor that enables to detect the magnetic field created by the transmitter, an error detection system that enables to determine the distortion by comparing the detected magnetic field to the ideal function, and a corrective system which enables to eliminate the distortion by the additional magnetic field that is created according to the detected distortion and/or by the current or voltage applied to the transmitter.
Claims
1- A metal detector, comprising: a transmit coil driven with a rectangular wave pulse signal, a receive coil, at least one sensor configured to detect a magnetic field created by the transmit coil, an error detection system configured to determine a distortion by comparing a detected magnetic field to an ideal function, and a corrective system configured to eliminate the distortion by an additional magnetic field created according to a detected distortion and/or by altering a current by a voltage applied to the transmit coil, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a magnetoresistive sensor.
2- The metal detector according to claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one field measurement coil and/or at least one sensor having a magnetic field sensing feature.
3. The metal detector according to claim 2, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a hall effect sensor and/or a magnetic flux gate sensor and/or a micro electromechanical sensor (MEMS) and/or a Lorentz Force based sensor and/or a piezoresistive sensor and/or a magnetic sensor operating with optical sensing and/or a resonator based a magnetic sensor and/or an eddy current based a magnetic sensor.
4-(canceled)
5-(canceled)
6- The metal detector according to claim 2, further comprising at least one magnetic receiver input circuit configured to convert a magnetic field signal detected as a potential difference (voltage) by the at least one sensor and/or the at least one field measurement coil to subsequent electronic circuits at appropriate levels.
7- The metal detector according to claim 1, further comprising at least one analog digital converter and/or multi channeled analog digital converter enabling a conversion in order to compare received signal to a ideal sample.
8-(Currently Amended) The metal detector according to claim 2, further comprising at least one integrator is positioned between magnetic receiver input circuit and an analog digital converter when the at least one field measurement coil is used.
9- The metal detector according to claim 1, further comprising at least one controlled current source configured to create a corrective signal generated by using active and/or passive elements.
10- The metal detector according to claim 9, further comprising a current source isolation circuit enabling the at least one controlled current source to be isolated electrically from a system voltage and isolating supply and control inputs and/or output of the at least one controlled current source from the system voltage.
11- The metal detector according to claim 9, further comprising at least one field correction coil configured to apply the corrective signal generated in the at least one controlled current source on the magnetic field created by the transmit coil.
12- The metal detector according to claim 1, further comprising at least one controlled constant voltage source constituted by active or passive components, in order to generate a corrective signal.
13- The metal detector according to claim 17, further comprising at least one switching component to apply a voltage generate by a controlled constant voltage source (17) onto the transmit coil.
14- The metal detector according to claim 17, wherein a current of the transmit coil (3) is maintained using a constant voltage switched to the transmit coil and a level of the current is controlled using a ramping time interval.
15- The metal detector according to claim 1, further comprising a field correction coil positioned as an independent coil and/or included within at least one winding of the transmit coil.
16- A method for enabling sensing of a distortion in a magnetic field created by a transmit coil in a metal detector and a correction of a sensed distortion in the magnetic field, consisting of the following process steps; converting an instant value or a time derivative of the magnetic field generated by the transmit coil to an electrical signal; determination of an error signal by comparing the magnetic field generated to an ideal function; generating a corrective signal by using the error signal; adding the corrective signal to the magnetic field created by the transmit coil directly or indirectly using at least one electronic and/or electronic/magnetic system.
17- The metal detector according to claim 1, further comprising a field correction coil consisting of at least one turn of the transmit coil, wherein an output of a controlled current source is configured to be connected to an internal wire through winding of the transmit coil.
18- The metal detector according to claim 6, further comprising at least one integrator positioned between the at least one magnetic receiver input circuit and an analog digital converter when the at least one field measurement coil is used.
19- The metal detector according to claim 7, further comprising at least one integrator positioned between a magnetic receiver input circuit and the at least one analog digital converter when the at least one field measurement coil is used.
20- The metal detector according to claim 10, further comprising at least one field correction coil configured to apply the corrective signal generated in the at least one controlled current source on the magnetic field created by the transmit coil.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE NUMBERS
[0034] 20—Digital Processing Unit [0035] 21—Transmitter Driver Circuit [0036] 22—Transmit coil [0037] 23—Field measurement coil [0038] 24—Magnetic sensor [0039] 25—Magnetic receiver input circuit [0040] 26—Integrator [0041] 27—Analog digital converter (ADC) [0042] 28—Digital analog converter (DAC) [0043] 29—Current source isolation circuit [0044] 30—Controlled current source [0045] 31—Field correction coil [0046] 32—Receive coil [0047] 33—Receiver input circuits [0048] 34—Signal preprocessing circuits [0049] 35—Analog digital converter (ADC) [0050] 36—Controlled constant voltage source [0051] 37—Switching component [0052] 38—Switching component [0053] 101-105: The voltage applied to transmit coil [0054] 111-115: Ideal magnetic field required to be created by transmit coil [0055] 121-126: The magnetic field created by transmit coil [0056] 131-138: Corrective magnetic field [0057] 207—System reference [0058] 208—Uncompensated transmitter system [0059] 209—Ideal transmitter function [0060] 210—Sampling system [0061] 211—Corrective Coil System [0062] 212—Magnetic sensor system
Detailed Description of the Embodiments
[0063] In
[0064] In
[0065] In
i(t)=i.sub.0e.sup.t/(L.sup.
[0066] This exponential expression within a predetermined time interval is closer to a linear downslope decrease and the decrease which can be seen in (122), can be seen partially independent from the parasitic effect based on the dynamic change in (121).
[0067] The waveform which can be able to gain the form in
[0068] In the preferred embodiment, in a metal detector operating in the time domain, as shown in
[0069] The main technique of the invention consists of a compensation using a sub-system by superposition principle which will create minimum distortion in total by means of measuring the distortion seen in
[0070] The Digital Signal Processing Unit (1) circuit within
[0071] In order to measure the magnetic field that is created with this coil, a magnetic sensor (5) is located to the location where the coil generates an optimum field, in preferred embodiment it is located to the planar surface center of the transmit coil (3). In the structure of
[0072] On the other hand, the magnetic field that is created by fast signal changes in the field measurement coil (4) may be more than desired or the magnetic field to which the magnetic sensor (5) is subject, may be above the limits, thus this condition is a variable based on the design. In this case, the location of the field measurement coil (4) or the magnetic sensor (5) can be altered in a manner such that they can be able to sense magnetic field at a lower magnitude. Here, an important aspect is that; it can be disadvantageous to move the field measurement coil (4) or the magnetic sensor (5) away from the planar plane and symmetry of the transmit coil (3). The signal which is converted into potential difference (voltage) by means of the Magnetic Sensor (5) or the Field Measurement Coil (4) is converted to the levels by means of a Magnetic Receiver Input Circuit (6) to which the following stages of electronic circuit can operate. Since the signals received by this circuit are relatively fast (at nanosecond-microsecond level), the characteristics of this circuit are all important. This circuit mainly consists of a band pass filter with amplifier. The output of the Magnetic Receiver Input Circuit (6), is connected directly to the Analog Digital Converter (8) circuit in an embodiment where the Magnetic Sensor (5) is preferred, in case the Field Measurement Coil (4) is used, it will be more appropriate to connect to the Analog Digital Converter (8) through an Analog Integrator (7). Although the mathematical integration process can be realized during digital signal processing period however when we consider the cases where the derivative gives low result for the analog digital converter (8), in order to keep the required accuracy and precision for digitizing, it will be more beneficial to realize this process using analog means. Despite the sampling speed of the Analog Digital Converter (8) is required to be at MS/s range (million samples per second) for an effective result, its resolution can be selected relatively low. Although it is not used in the preferred embodiment, in order to improve the total digital resolution, a plurality of Analog Digital Converter (8) or a multichannel Analog Digital Converter (8) can be used, in mathematical processes the derivative of the signal can be processed together with the signal itself.
[0073] The difference between the signal received from the analog digital converter (8) and the referenced signal is the error signal. The error signal is an amplitude that belongs to the magnetic field and the correction signal is required to have the form of the magnetic field. In accordance with the Biot-Savart law, it is known that the magnetic field created due to an electric current is directly proportional with the current. When scaled negative (multiple of −k) is applied, it is possible to obtain the required correction by superposition. In generating the corrective magnetic field, the number of windings is preferred to be less, preferably single, because if the number of windings increase, it will create parasitic effects in the corrective magnetic field as it is in the transmit coil (3). Lower number of windings means to put away the benefit of multiplying the magnetic field based on the number of tours (B α NI). The duration and amplitude of the corrective magnetic field on the ring effect is relatively small within the total duration. For this reason, the current intensity does not constitute a problem. Since the circuit is electrically isolated from the voltage of rest of the system which creates the corrective current and the controlled current source (11), it decreases the capacitive effects and enables flexibility in realizing the current source electronically. For this reason at the source and control inputs of a controlled current source (11), there is a Current Source Isolation Circuit (10). The circuit which controls the current source is a Digital Analog Converter (9) which converts the calculated digital correction information provided by means of the Digital Processing Unit (1) to an analog voltage level. These three sections are required to operate as fast as at least the Analog Digital Converter (8). The Controlled Current Source (11) drives the Field Correction Coil (12). Here the fact that the Field Correction Coil (12) shall not physically apart from the Transmit Coil (3), constituted the same physical shape completely and overlap; otherwise, the magnetic fields generated by two coils may not exhibit regularity in the space around the coil. Arrangement of these two coils totally one in the other is also a situation which is not desired. Although the Current Source Isolation Circuit (10) substantially eliminates the capacitive effects between two systems (one of the aims is this) leaving an optimal distance is beneficial in terms of the stability of two circuits. In this embodiment, it is not possible to use a voltage source for driving the Field Correction Coil (12), in this section it is necessary to use the Controlled Current Source (11). Since these coils share the same magnetic field between the Transmit Coil (3) and the Field Correction Coil (12), there is a mutual induction and the magnetic field created by means of the Transmit Coil (3) causes a magnetic induction on the Field Correction Coil (12), in other words causes a voltage. In order to realize an accurate superposition in the magnetic field, the current of the Field Correction Coil (12) shall be a current which can be controlled independently from this induction.
[0074] Rather than the Field correction coil (12) is an independent coil, it is possible to use the windings of the transmit coil. In this configuration seen in
[0075] The calculation that is realized in the Digital Processing Unit (1) and active compensation process consist of basically the ideal magnetic field formulation, measurement of the generated magnetic field and generating the corrective signal for eliminating the difference between them. The physical system in
[0076] As it can be seen in the system control diagram of
[0077] As an alternative, it is possible to obtain the same functionality of the Controlled Constant Voltage Source (17) by using a constant voltage source fixed to an optimum voltage and setting a current to a level that will be constant in intervals (112) and (114) only by varying the time interval of (111) and (113) in
[0078] The compensation process is realized as a digital active system in the preferred embodiment however as different circuits which will create and analog or digital context, also it is possible to establish a compensation system which will make adjustment in the signal by means of the digitally supported or unique analog principles. In any of the cases, the following main processes will be applied directly or indirectly as a closed loop or in a predetermined order.
[0079] D) Converting the instant value or the time derivative of the magnetic field to an electrical signal
[0080] E) Determination of the error by comparing the generated magnetic field to the ideal function
[0081] F) Adding the corrective signal to the magnetic field directly or indirectly by means of at least one electronic and/or electronic/magnetic system.
[0082] In the preferred embodiment, the corrective signal is added to the magnetic field using a separate coil however it is possible to realize the signal, particularly the signal within the resistive region by means of analog and digital processes by injecting current to the transmit coil and by making addition on the coil voltage by this method. Since the correction of the capacitive effects by means of a method except creating a magnetic field is not an easy process, the correction process can be realized alternatively as a system which can be able to eliminate the resistive effects by current or voltage superposition on at least one winding of the transmit coil (3), the capacitive effects by means of injecting to the partial windings of the transmit coil (3). Here it is possible to correct the capacitive effects with a system which is fast however does not require considerable energy in total. Regardless of how the transmitter injection is made for this correction, in order to eliminate the system from the internal capacitive parasitic effects, it is required to be realized with the possible lowest number of windings. In correcting the resistive effects, magnetic field and/or current injection will be take part for relatively a long interval correction. For this reason in order to realize this correction with single or less number of tours, a high average current will be required, thus for obtaining the required magnetic flux, the number of tours shall be higher to have the required (N.I) (current.tour) value. Thus, in this case the relevant coil of the transmitter or an independent coil are required to have a plurality of tours. In order to eliminate both parasitic effects, it is possible to use both methods in conjunction.