Improved Signal Processing for an Ultrasonic Distance Sensor with Reduced Blind Zone

Single transducer distance sensors have a blind zone because normally the electrical received signal cannot be detected during transmitting. There are several approaches to realize a simultaneous transmit and receive operation. Digital signal processing is the best solution for narrow band systems (air ultrasound transducer) especially when the transmitted signal is coded. Thereby a mathematical model is used to estimate the electrical received signal. A drawback of the digital signal processing is the required computing time to estimate the model and the time of flight of an echo. In this contribution the computing time is reduced significantly by using base band signals for the signal processing. The signal-processing is subdivided into the following steps: Preprocessing, model identification, estimation of the received signal and echo detection. Beside the model identification the signal-preprocessing is an important part of the system. It depends on the time of flight of an echo (close echo, far echo) and the state of the system (single measurement, averaging). The whole system is evaluated with measurements using a 40 kHz air ultrasound transducer in front of a reflector with varying distances between 0 mm and 1000 mm.