ULTRASOUND TRANSDUCER TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION METHODS, APPARATUS AND PROGRAMS
First Claim
1. In an ultrasound electrostatic transducer circuit for transmitting ultrasound pulses and receiving ultrasound echo returns, said transducer circuit producing an ultrasound transducer output signal in a ultrasound signal output line, a capacitive divider sub-circuit improvement comprising:
- (a) a first capacitor and a second capacitor electrically connected in series between said ultrasound signal output line and ground; and
(b) a voltage signal output line electrically connected between said first and said second capacitor to produce a transducer voltage monitor output signal during transducer circuit operation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Method, apparatus and computer programs are described for compensating for the effect of temperature on the sensitivity of electrostatic ultrasound (US) transducers, particularly as used in an automotive occupancy sensing (AOS) systems for sensing the nature or type of occupant and the location of the occupant with respect to the vehicle interior. The invention permits the AOS to classify the occupancy state of the vehicle from a US echo signal substantially free of the effects of temperature on signal amplitude. A capacitive divider or voltage monitor is employed to measure the capacitance of the transducer. The voltage monitor output is used by the scaling algorithm of a compensator to determine the scaling factor to be applied to the US transducer signal to compensate for the effect of temperature on the transducer sensitivity. Calibration procedures and software are disclosed for determining the coefficients of the scaling algorithm to compensate for temperature effects and also to compensate for installation factors, transducer manufacturing variations, and circuit board effects. The system disclosed is useful for other types of signal processing in addition to temperature compensation of AOS ultrasonic signals, and may be used in other ranging devices such as cameras, golf or binocular range finders, and measuring devices and instruments.
9 Citations
25 Claims
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1. In an ultrasound electrostatic transducer circuit for transmitting ultrasound pulses and receiving ultrasound echo returns, said transducer circuit producing an ultrasound transducer output signal in a ultrasound signal output line, a capacitive divider sub-circuit improvement comprising:
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(a) a first capacitor and a second capacitor electrically connected in series between said ultrasound signal output line and ground; and
(b) a voltage signal output line electrically connected between said first and said second capacitor to produce a transducer voltage monitor output signal during transducer circuit operation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An improved automotive occupancy sensor system having an ultrasound electrostatic transducer sensor circuit for transmitting ultrasound pulses and receiving ultrasound echo returns and an ultrasound signal output line for transmitting an ultrasound transducer output signal from said sensor circuit to a feature extraction means for extracting ultrasound echo return features for occupancy state classification, the improvement comprising:
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a) a voltage scaling sub-circuit connected to said transducer circuit to produce a voltage monitor signal in a voltage monitor signal line;
b) a compensation means;
c) said ultrasound signal output line and said voltage monitor signal line each connecting to and transmitting its respective signal to said compensation means;
d) said compensation means scaling the amplitude of said ultrasound output signal in response to said voltage monitor signal to produce a scaled ultrasound output signal substantially compensated for the effects of variation in the temperature of said transducer; and
e) said scaled ultrasound output signal being transmitted from said compensation means to said feature extraction means. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of compensation for the effects of temperature-dependent variation in sensitivity of an ultrasound electrostatic transducer sensor circuit for transmitting ultrasound pulses and receiving ultrasound echo signals, comprising in any operative order:
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a) providing a capacitive divider sub-circuit connected to said sensor circuit to produce a voltage output signal during said ultrasound pulse transmission;
b) measuring the amplitude of said voltage output signal of said capacitive divider sub-circuit; and
c) scaling the amplitude of said ultrasound echo signal in response to said voltage output signal to produce a scaled ultrasound echo signal output substantially compensated for the effects of variation in the temperature of said transducer.
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15. A method of compensation for the effects of temperature-dependent variation in sensitivity of an ultrasound electrostatic transducer circuit for transmitting ultrasound pulses and receiving ultrasound echo returns, said transducer circuit producing an ultrasound transducer output signal in a ultrasound signal output line, comprising in any operative order:
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a) measuring the amplitude of said ultrasound transducer output signal during said transmitted ultrasound pulses; and
b) scaling the amplitude of said ultrasound transducer output signal in response to said measured amplitude of said ultrasound transducer output signal to produce a scaled ultrasound transducer output signal that is substantially compensated for the effects of variation the sensitivity of said transducer due to variation in the temperature of said transducer circuit. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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19. A data processing system for compensating for the effects of variation in transducer sensitivity due to variation in temperature, in association with an ultrasound electrostatic transducer sensor circuit for transmitting ultrasound pulses and receiving ultrasound echo returns, said transducer circuit producing an ultrasound transducer output signal, said data processing system comprising:
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a) a capacitive divider sub-circuit connected to said transducer circuit to produce a voltage monitor signal;
b) a converter to convert both of said ultrasound transducer output signal and said voltage monitor signal to digital signals, including voltage monitor signal amplitude characteristics; and
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c) a computer processor which processes said digitized signals, said processor including a memory storage medium having stored therein a compensation algorithm relating the transducer sensitivity to the amplitude of said voltage monitor signal, and said processor scales the amplitude of said ultrasound transducer output signal to produce a compensated ultrasound signal by computing and applying a scaling factor based on said compensation algorithm and said voltage monitor amplitude. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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21. A method of detecting the existence of at least one of an open circuit state and a shorted state of an ultrasound electrostatic transducer sensor circuit for transmitting ultrasound pulses and receiving ultrasound echo signals, comprising in any operative order:
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a) providing a capacitive divider sub-circuit connected to said sensor circuit;
b) establishing a pre-selected amplitude limit of said voltage monitor signal corresponding to at least one of an open circuit state and a shorted state of said transducer circuit; and
c) comparing the amplitude of said voltage monitor signal with at least one of a pre-selected open-circuit limit voltage and a pre-selected short-circuit limit voltage to determine if said amplitude is beyond said amplitude limit.
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22. A method of substantially reducing the magnitude of audible clicks produced during biasing of an ultrasound electrostatic transducer sensor circuit for transmitting ultrasound pulses and receiving ultrasound echo signals, comprising in any operative order:
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a) providing a capacitive divider sub-circuit connected to said sensor circuit;
b) monitoring said voltage monitor signal to determine transducer bias voltage; and
c) regulating said bias voltage of said transducer in response to said voltage monitor signal to substantially reduce the magnitude of audible clicks.
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23. A method of to substantially eliminate pulse-to-pulse amplitude variation of an ultrasound electrostatic transducer sensor circuit for transmitting ultrasound pulses and receiving ultrasound echo signals, comprising in any operative order:
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a) providing a capacitive divider sub-circuit connected to said sensor circuit;
b) establishing a pre-selected voltage monitor signal amplitude corresponding to a pre-selected transducer bias voltage state; and
c) adjusting said bias voltage of said transducer in response to said voltage monitor signal to reach said pre-selected voltage monitor signal amplitude prior to the transmission of each ultrasound pulse to substantially eliminate pulse-to-pulse amplitude variation.
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24. A computer program product for compensating for the effects of variation in transducer sensitivity due to variation in temperature and operating on a computer processor system including memory storage in association with ultrasound transducer driving circuitry, said driving circuitry producing a digitized voltage monitor signal representing transducer voltage during transducer ultrasound transmission and a digitized transducer output signal,
said computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in said medium, said computer readable program code comprising: -
a) a first program code means for causing the computer system to detect the amplitude of said digitized voltage monitor signal;
b) a second program code means for causing the computer system to detect the amplitude of said digitized transducer output signal;
c) a third program code means for causing the computer system to compute a scaling factor based on a compensation algorithm relating the transducer sensitivity to the amplitude of said voltage monitor signal; and
d) a fourth program code means for causing the computer system to scale the amplitude of said digitized transducer output signal by amplifying said digitized transducer output signal in proportion to said scaling factor to produce a temperature compensated transducer output signal. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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Specification