Simultaneous transmitting and receiving with ultrasonic sensors

In many applications ultrasonic transducers are used for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves. Ultrasonic sensor systems meet the practical requirements of industrial applications quite well. Typical sensor applications are for example the measurement of distance and thickness. Especially if only one ultrasonic transceiver and the well-known pulse-echo-method are used, the sensor electronics has to switch from transmitting to receiving mode. This is one of the most limiting properties because the probe can not receive echoes from nearby obstacles or thin material layers. This contribution deals with the development of an electronic interface circuit for ultrasonic sensors allowing transmitting and receiving of acoustic signals simultaneously. There are already several methods to separate the transmitted from the received signal for instance the well-known circulator in the telephone, the differential transformer mentioned by Bradfield [1] or a directional coupler [2]. The directional coupler consists of two broadband transformers linked with each other in such a way that it equally distributes the input power at port one to the third and fourth port, while port two is isolated. This circuit is also known as 3 dB directional coupler and makes it possible to get reference echoes directly from the interface between the sensor and the medium of interest. Several reflectors or multiple sound paths such as used in ultrasonic density measurement systems are unnecessary [3].