US 11,869,479 B2
1D ultrasonic converter unit
Thomas Kaindl, Dossenheim (DE); Regine Augenstein, Mannheim (DE); Mario Kupnik, Darmstadt (DE); Axel Jaeger, Ingolstadt (DE); and Matthias Rutsch, Darmstadt (DE)
Assigned to Pepperl + Fuchs SE, Mannheim (DE)
Filed by Pepperl + Fuchs SE, Mannheim (DE)
Filed on Jan. 13, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/148,418.
Application 17/148,418 is a continuation of application No. PCT/EP2019/000162, filed on May 23, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 10 2018 005 540.0 (DE), filed on Jul. 13, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0134261 A1, May 6, 2021
Int. Cl. G01S 15/02 (2006.01); G10K 11/34 (2006.01); B06B 1/06 (2006.01); G01F 1/66 (2022.01)
CPC G10K 11/346 (2013.01) [B06B 1/0622 (2013.01); G01F 1/662 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A 1D ultrasonic converter unit comprising:
at least three ultrasonic converters to detect objects, contours, or distances, each of the at least three ultrasonic converters has a housing, a piezoelectric body disposed in the housing, and a sound decoupling layer arranged at an open end of the housing for decoupling sound waves in a gaseous medium; and
a control unit configured to control each of the at least three ultrasonic converters individually,
wherein the at least three ultrasonic converters are configured to emit and/or to receive the same frequency, the frequency being in a range from 20 kHz to 400 kHz,
wherein, two ultrasonic converters of the at least three ultrasonic converters, directly adjacent to one another, have a distance from a center of the sound decoupling layer to a center of the sound decoupling layer of at most 10 cm or at most 5 cm or at most 2 cm,
wherein the 1D ultrasonic converter unit has one sound channel per ultrasonic converter,
wherein each sound channel has an input opening with a first cross-sectional area and an output opening with a second cross-sectional area,
wherein exactly one of the input openings is associated with each sound decoupling layer,
wherein the output openings are arranged along a line,
wherein a distance from a center of one of the output openings to a center of an immediately adjacent output opening corresponds at most to a wavelength in a gaseous medium or at most to half the wavelength in the gaseous medium,
wherein a distance between two directly adjacent output openings is in each case smaller than a distance between corresponding input openings,
wherein a quotient of a surface area of the output opening to a surface area of the input opening has a value between 0.30 and 1.2,
wherein each sound channel has at least a length of the diameter of the input opening,
wherein the at least three ultrasonic converters are embedded in a common support structure, and
wherein the output openings of all sound channels lie in a curved surface.