FILL LEVEL MEASUREMENT DEVICE

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a measuring device for measuring a fill level of a material in a container based on time of flight principles, including components that serve to generate, transmit and receive a measurement signal and further serve to convert said measurement signal into an analog intermediate frequency signal having an expected signal frequency within a predetermined frequency range, said intermediate frequency signal including information corresponding to the fill level of the material in the container, wherein an analog to digital converter is provided that serves to subsequently sample the intermediate frequency signal, said analog to digital converter employing a sampling frequency less than the expected signal frequency of intermediate frequency signal.

Claims

1-12. (canceled)

13. A measuring device based on the time of flight principle, comprising: components embodied to generate, to transmit and to receive a measurement signal corresponding to a fill level of a material in a container and further embodied to convert the measurement signal into an analog intermediate frequency signal having an expected signal frequency within a predetermined frequency range, the analog intermediate frequency signal including measurement information from the measurement signal; and an analog to digital converter configured to sample the analog intermediate frequency signal and to output a digital intermediate frequency signal, wherein the analog to digital converter is further configured to sample at a sampling frequency less than the expected signal frequency of the analog intermediate frequency signal.

14. The measuring device of claim 13, further comprising: a microprocessor, wherein the analog to digital converter is integrated in the microprocessor.

15. The measuring device of claim 13, further comprising a band-pass filter configured to pass the predetermined frequency range and to filter frequencies greater than a measurement signal frequency of the measurement signal.

16. The measuring device of claim 15, wherein the band-pass filter is configured to pass a frequency range corresponding to the predetermined frequency range, and wherein the passed frequency range is smaller than half the sampling frequency of the analog to digital converter.

17. The measuring device of claim 13, further comprising: a local oscillator configured to generate a local oscillator signal in the measuring device; and a mixer configured to mix the received measurement signal with the local oscillator signal and to output the analog intermediate frequency signal, wherein the measuring device is a pulsed radar based device and wherein the received measurement signal includes a sequence of electromagnetic pulses.

18. The measuring device of claim 13, wherein when the frequency of the intermediate frequency signal corresponds to said expected frequency, the analog to digital converter outputs a digital intermediate frequency signal with a frequency that is shifted down with respect to the frequency of the analog intermediate frequency signal, and wherein a magnitude of the frequency shift corresponds essentially to the sampling frequency of the analog to digital converter.

19. The measuring device of claim 15, further comprising a variable amplifier connected between the band-pass filter and the analog to digital converter.

20. The measuring device of claim 19, further comprising a second band-pass filter connected between the variable amplifier and the analog to digital converter.

21. The measuring device of claim 20, wherein the analog to digital converter is connected directly to the second band-pass filter.

22. The measuring device of claim 14, wherein the microprocessor includes a component group configured to perform a decimation process on the digital intermediate frequency signal.

23. The measuring device of claim 14, wherein the microprocessor includes a component group configured to square, to low-pass filter, and to perform a square root on the digital intermediate frequency signal.

24. The measuring device of claim 14, wherein the microprocessor includes a component group configured to forward-backward filter the digital intermediate frequency signal.

25. A method of time-of-flight signal processing, comprising: generating a time-of-flight measurement signal; transmitting the measurement signal to a surface that will at least partially reflect the measurement signal; receiving the reflected measurement signal; mixing the received measurement signal with a generated local oscillator signal to yield an analog intermediate frequency signal; filtering the analog intermediate frequency signal via a broadband band-pass filter, wherein the broadband band-pass filter is embodied to pass the analog intermediate frequency signal and to filter out unwanted harmonics; amplifying the analog intermediate frequency signal to increase the signal strength of the filtered analog intermediate frequency signal; selecting a sampling frequency wherein the sampling frequency is less than a center frequency of the analog intermediate frequency signal, whereby Nyquist zones are defined by the sampling frequency; filtering the analog intermediate frequency signal to reduce signal components not in a third Nyquist zone; sampling at the sampling frequency the analog intermediate frequency signal via an analog-to-digital converter to produce a digital intermediate frequency signal; analyzing the digital intermediate frequency signal to produce an envelope curve; and determining a time-of-flight from the envelope curve.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the time-of-flight measurement signal is an electromagnetic pulsed radar wave.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] The present disclosure will next be more closely described with reference to the following figures.

[0021] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the components of a pulsed radar fill level measurement device;

[0022] FIGS. 2A, B show graphical representations of oversampling and undersampling methods for analog to digital conversion of an intermediate frequency signal; and

[0023] FIG. 3 shows a block diagram illustrating analog and digital signal processing steps.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of showing the components of a pulsed radar fill level measurement device 1. Two pulse repetition frequency (hereafter “prf-”) generators 2, 3 are shown. The generators can be embodied, for example, as crystal oscillators. The prf-generators 2, 3 in a pulsed radar device generally oscillate in the megahertz range, and have slightly differing frequencies. The prf-generators 2, 3 are each connected to the pulse generators 4, 5, which output pulses having a predetermined pulse width according to the input signals received from the prf-generators 2, 3. The pulse widths are determined by the pulse generators 4, 5 themselves, and are either fixed or could be altered via an analog configuration signal. The repetition frequency of the pulses is determined by the prf-generators 2, 3.

[0025] A first pulse generator 4 is connected to a transmit oscillator 6, which serves to modulate a high frequency signal onto each pulse, outputting a high frequency wavepacket. These high frequency wavepackets S, which can also be characterised as the measurement signal S, are fed to a coupler 8, which passes the wavepackets S on to a transmitting-/receiving unit 10. The transmitting/receiving unit 10 can be an antenna, for example, but can also be waveguide, which serves to guide the pulses to a material interface 11 within a container 12. At the material interface 11, regardless of whether the wavepackets S are guided or simply transmitted by an antenna, the wavepackets S encounter a change in impedance and a portion of each wavepacket S is reflected back to the transmitting/receiving unit 10. The reflected portion of the wavepackets, i.e. the reflected portion of the measurement signal S, is fed by the transmitting-receiving unit 10 to the coupler 8. The coupler 8 then passes the measurement signal S to a mixer 9.

[0026] At the mixer 9, the measurement signal S is mixed with the so-called local oscillator signal SLO, which includes pulsed, high frequency wavepackets generated by a local oscillator 7. The local oscillator 7 generates this local oscillator signal SLO according to the output of the second pulse generator 5. The output of the mixer 9 is the analog intermediate frequency signal SIF. Generally speaking, the mixer 9 outputs high frequency harmonics in addition to the intermediate frequency signal SIF of interest. These high frequency harmonics are filtered out by a subsequently connected band-pass filter 13. The band-pass filter 13 is a broadband band-pass, such that the entire intermediate frequency signal SIF of interest is passed. The intermediate frequency signal SIF includes an expected frequency, which is determined in large part by the frequency difference between the two prf-generators 2, 3. However, deviations from the expected frequency can occur due to component tolerances and/or temperature effects for example. The band-pass filter 13 is therefore embodied to pass a predetermined frequency band, said predetermined frequency band extending far enough to cover all probable and/or possible frequency variations in the frequency of the intermediate frequency signal SIF. The range of possible frequency variation can be determined from the component tolerances given by component suppliers, for example. Conventionally, a band-pass filter in this position in a pulsed radar device is a narrow-band filter that is “tuned” during production to the actual frequency of the intermediate frequency signal SIF.

[0027] The band-pass filtered intermediate frequency signal SIF is then fed to a variable amplifier 14. The variable amplifier 14 can amplify the signal between 0 and 20 dB, for example. This ensures that the analog to digital converter 16 continually samples at an optimal signal strength to maximize the accuracy of the sampling process. In particular, the signal strength of the intermediate frequency signal SIF is set between 16 mVpp and 1.8 Vpp for example, to move the signal above the noise range of the analog to digital converter 16 itself, thereby minimising the noise's effect on the sampling accuracy.

[0028] The intermediate frequency signal SIF is then band-pass filtered a second time by a subsequently connected second band-pass filter 15. The second band-pass filter 15 serves to limit the frequency range of the signal that is to be sampled in preparation for undersampling. This second band-pass filtering in particular limits the noise contributions of the various other receiving side components and ensures that the frequency of the intermediate frequency signal SIF is within the third Nyquist zone, as is to be explained in connection with FIGS. 2A, B. The second band-pass filter 15 can be a 4th order filter, for example. The series of components presented in this embodiment eliminates the need to provide a logarithmiser in order to prepare the signal for analog to digital conversion, as is typical in conventional fill level radar devices. This further reduces the power consumption required for a measurement cycle as well as the production cost of the measurement device 1.

[0029] The analog to digital converter 16 is a conventional a/d-converter of the sort that is typically included on a microprocessor 17. An example of this type of converter is a simple 16-bit converter that samples at 50 kHz. After the second band-pass filter 14, a typical intermediate frequency signal SIF can include a center frequency of around 60 kHz and a bandwidth of 2 or 3 kHz. According to the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem for the conversion of analog signals into the digital domain, the analog signal must be sampled with a sampling frequency that is at least twice the frequency of the analog signal itself. Only then can the information contained in the signal be completely extracted without introducing any indeterminacy. The indeterminacy introduced by undersampling the analog intermediate frequency signal SIF involves the appearance of frequency shifted copies of the sampled signal SIF.

[0030] FIG. 2A shows a graphical representation of an oversampling method for analog to digital conversion of an intermediate frequency signal SIF. In FIG. 2A, the first two Nyquist zones N1, N2 are displayed along a frequency axis. The first zone N1 is shaded to indicate the destination Nyquist zone that results from sampling at the sampling frequency fs. The intermediate frequency signal SIF is located in a frequency band surrounding the dashed line 18. The sampling frequency fs here fulfills the requirements of the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem. That is, the sampling frequency fs is at least twice the frequency of the analog intermediate frequency signal SIF. As a result, the digital intermediate frequency signal SIF that results from the sampling remains in the first Nyquist zone N1, and there is no indeterminacy introduced.

[0031] In FIG. 2B a graphical representation of an undersampling method for analog to digital conversion of an intermediate frequency signal SIF is shown. Here, the intermediate frequency signal SIF is once again contained in a frequency band surrounding the dashed line 18. However, since the sampling frequency fs is much lower, the intermediate frequency signal SIF is in the third Nyquist zone N3. When the analog to digital converter 16 samples the analog signal SIF, an image of the intermediate frequency signal SIF appears in the first Nyquist zone N1 as is indicated by an arrow 19. The indeterminacy introduced by the forming of images or copies of the intermediate frequency signal SIF can be eliminated through digital processing techniques as is described in connection with FIG. 3. In particular, a digital low pass filtering can be carried out, which removes any higher frequency copies of the intermediate frequency signal SIF.

[0032] FIG. 3 shows a block diagram illustrating analog and digital signal processing steps. On the analog side, the previously described second band-pass filter 15 receives the intermediate frequency signal SIF and feeds it to the microprocessor 17. The microprocessor 17 includes a standard analog to digital converter 16, which serves to sample the intermediate frequency signal SIF. The analog to digital converter 16 outputs a digital intermediate frequency signal to a digital processing block 24. The digital processing block 24 includes component groups that serve firstly to square 20 the intermediate frequency signal SIF, thereby bringing the entire signal SIF into a positive amplitude range. A second component group 21 then serves to double the signal strength of the squared intermediate frequency signal SIF. Subsequently, the signal SIF can be low pass filtered 22, and then the square root can be taken 23. These digital processing steps lead to the generation of an envelope curve, which can then be evaluated to determine the time of flight of the measurement signal S and/or distance from the transmitting-/receiving unit 10 to the material interface 11. In order to decrease the computational requirements of these digital processing techniques, a signal decimation can additionally be carried out before the digital low-pass filtering 22 is carried out. Furthermore, since the low-pass filtering 22 can lead to an undesired delay in the intermediate frequency signal SIF, a component group can be provided that serves to forward-backward filter the signal SIF, thereby eliminating this delay.