On the Optimization of Spread Spectrum Chirps Into Arbitrary Position and Width Pulse Signals. Application to Ultrasonic Sensors and Systems

This work presents in detail a new method for the optimization of rectangular spread spectrum excitation signals for its use in simple and low-cost ultrasonic pulsers, but that could be extended to other applications based on spread spectrum signals. Starting from rectangular linear frequency modula...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rodriguez-Martinez, A, Svilainis, L, De la Casa-Lillo, MA, Alvarez-Arenas, TG, Aleksandrovas, A, Chaziachmetovas, A, Salazar, A
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana (FISABIO)
Repositorio:r-FISABIO. Repositorio Institucional de Producción Científica
OAI Identifier:oai:fisabio.fundanetsuite.com:p14026
Acceso en línea:https://fisabio.portalinvestigacion.com/publicaciones/14026
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Transducers
Chirp
Bandwidth
Optimization
Signal to noise ratio
Signal resolution
Acoustics
Ultrasound
spread spectrum
chirp
arbitrary position and width pulses
split spectrum processing
nondestructive testing
Descripción
Sumario:This work presents in detail a new method for the optimization of rectangular spread spectrum excitation signals for its use in simple and low-cost ultrasonic pulsers, but that could be extended to other applications based on spread spectrum signals. Starting from rectangular linear frequency modulated (RLFM) chirps, it uses the transfer function of the transmitted signal and received echoes from reference specimens to iterate through a recursive algorithm to obtain arbitrary position and width pulse (APWP) signals with the desired bandwidth, maximizing the energy and the flatness of the spectrum, and enhancing the resolution and dynamic range of conventional chirp excitation signals. This optimization procedure can be repeated for any transducer and material, so that it achieves the best performance in each experimental environment. Such characteristics are ideal for Time-of-Flight estimation, imaging, and applications in which spectral regularity is needed, such as the Split Spectrum Processing (SSP) algorithm, which is used as example to test the performance of the proposed excitation signals. It also allows to specify and change the bandwidth reducing the need to change the transducers. The method is tested with different transducers (2 and 5 MHz focused transducers) and complex composite materials (aluminum-carbon aviation composite and high porosity GFRP composite) in immersion setup for imaging applications using SSP algorithm.