Electrically steered acoustic lens

Communications – electrical: acoustic wave systems and devices – Signal transducers – Underwater type

Patent

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

310335, H04R 2300, H04R 1700

Patent

active

055463606

ABSTRACT:
This invention is a composite acoustic lens that can be steered internally through electrical control. It can collect and direct acoustic energy from a plane wave to focus it on a transducer. It can also take the nearly omnidirectional output from a standard acoustic transducer and direct its energy in a plane wave. In the receive role the lens increases the effective signal-to-noise ratio of the array; in the transmit role it reduces the output energy that is responsible for reverberation. The lens is steerable by virtue of its material: it is electrorheological. Its bulk modulus, and the resulting speed of sound, can be changed electrically. Controlling the gradient of the index of refraction allows the steering to be adjusted precisely, continuously, and quickly. It is held by a container of plastic material that matches the acoustic impedance of water and minimizes the presence of near-field scatterers. A system based on the proposed lens can improve the effectiveness of both active and passive sonars, reduce the detectability of active transmissions and reduce the inboard footprint. Medical applications exist for both imaging and lithotriptic devices.

REFERENCES:
patent: 2913602 (1959-11-01), Joy
patent: 3531185 (1970-09-01), Buchsbaum et al.
patent: 3984086 (1976-10-01), Gerrish
patent: 4014693 (1977-03-01), Clark
patent: 4037929 (1977-07-01), Bricot et al.
patent: 4168482 (1979-09-01), Sternberg
patent: 5018835 (1991-05-01), Dorschner
patent: 5184233 (1993-02-01), Lim et al.
patent: 5241991 (1993-09-01), Iorio et al.
patent: 5288535 (1994-02-01), Kanbara et al.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Electrically steered acoustic lens does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Electrically steered acoustic lens, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Electrically steered acoustic lens will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1054537

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.