US 12,487,348 B2
Acoustic transmitting antenna
Yves Lagier, Sophia Antipolis (FR); Raphaël Lardat, Sophia Antipolis (FR); and Jérémie Todesco, Sophia Antipolis (FR)
Assigned to THALES, Courbevoie (FR)
Appl. No. 17/287,097
Filed by THALES, Courbevoie (FR)
PCT Filed Oct. 16, 2019, PCT No. PCT/EP2019/078083
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 20, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/083724, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 30, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 1801114 (FR), filed on Oct. 22, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0389440 A1, Dec. 16, 2021
Int. Cl. G01S 7/534 (2006.01); B06B 1/06 (2006.01); G01S 7/52 (2006.01); G10K 11/00 (2006.01)
CPC G01S 7/534 (2013.01) [B06B 1/0633 (2013.01); G01S 7/52004 (2013.01); G10K 11/008 (2013.01); B06B 2201/74 (2013.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An acoustic antenna (ANT) intended to equip a sonar, the antenna being centered around a first longitudinal axis (A1) and comprising at least a first set of at least two transducers (T1) and a second set of at least two transducers (T2) stacked along said longitudinal axis, each transducer having at least one radial mode having a resonance frequency, referred to as a radial frequency, and one cavity mode having a resonance frequency, referred to as a cavity frequency, wherein the transducers of the first set are configured to transmit sound waves in a first continuous frequency band extending at least between the cavity frequencies and the radial frequencies of the transducers of the first set and the transducers of the second set are configured to transmit sound waves in a second continuous frequency band extending at least between the cavity frequencies and the radial frequencies of the transducers of the second set, in that the cavity frequency of a transducer of the second set is substantially equal to the radial frequency of a transducer of the first set plus or minus (fr1-fc1)/10, fr1 being the radial frequency of the transducer of the first set and fc1 being the cavity frequency of the transducer of the first set and wherein the transducers of the second set are placed between the transducers of the first set and in that no transducer of the first set is placed between the transducers of the second set;
wherein said acoustic antenna further comprises:
at least a first phase-shifter (D1) arranged so as to introduce a first phase shift (Δϕ1) between an excitation signal of the transducers of the first set and an excitation signal of at least a sub-group of transducers of the second set; and
at least a second phase-shifter (D2) arranged so as to introduce a second phase shift (Δϕ2) between excitation signals of different sub-groups of transducers of the second set.