• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.324-329
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• 2022

This paper proposes a shift-register-based multichannel ultrasonic focusing delay control method using a complex programmable logic device (CPLD) for a high resolution of ultrasonic focusing system. The proposed method can achieve the ultrasonic focusing through the delay control of driving signals of each ultrasonic transducer of an ultrasonic array. The delay of the driving signals of all ultrasonic channels can be controlled by setting the shift register in the CPLD. The experiment verified that the frequency of the clock used for the delay control increased, the error of the focusing point decreased, and the diameter of the focusing point decreased as the length of the shift register in the proposed method. The proposed method used only one CPLD for ultrasonic focusing and did not require to use complex hardware circuits. Therefore, the resources required for the design of an ultrasonic focusing system could be reduced. The proposed method can be applied to the fields of human computer interaction (HCI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.242-247
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• 2009

The ability of time reversal techniques to focus ultrasonic beams on the source location is important in many aspects of ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation. In this paper, we investigate the time reversal beam focusing of ultrasonic array sensors on a defect in layered media. Numerical modeling is performed using the commercially available software which employs a time domain finite difference method. Two different time reversal approaches are considered - the through transmission and the pulse-echo. Linear array sensors composed of N elements of line sources are used for signal reception/excitation, time reversal, and reemission in time reversal processes associated with the scattering source of a side-drilled hole located in the second layer of two layer structure. The simulation results demonstrate the time reversal focusing even with multiple reflections from the interface of layered structure. We examine the focusing resolution that is related to the propagation distance, the size of array sensor and the wavelength.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.190-197
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• 2006

For enhancement of flaw detactability using array transducers, focusing of ultrasonic waves on a target in an inhomogeneous medium or through a complex geometry is important. But focusing can be strongly degraded by geometrical distortion of field radiated by the array transducers or by sound speed fluctuations in the propagating medium. In recent years, the time reversal technique has been proposed. Thus, in this paper, we describe the basic principal of the time reversal technique for focusing. Then, the implementation results of the time reversal technique for ultrasonic inspections using bulk waves and guided waves generated by array transducers are presented.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.65-71
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• 1984

The design formular of optical focusing systems cannot be applied to ultrasonic B scanners, which use broadband pulses instead of continuous wave. In this paper, a calculation method is studied for analyzing the propagation of ultrasonic broadband pulse excited by ultrasonic array transducers. Using the results, seveial design parameters such as the number of transducer elements, delay time, and the focal point are determined to obtain high resolution in the ultrasonic dynamic focusing system. A dynamic focusing system with low-noise switching characteristics; which attains lateral resolution of 2-3mm all along the axial direction up to 18 cm with a 3.5 MHz linear array transducer, was implemented.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.11c
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• pp.595-597
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• 2004

In this paper range measurement systems using ultrasonic and visual sensors are designed. By varying the focus of a camera, the range to a target pattern is computed. Pour different methods are tested for the focusing-based range measurement. The best result is obtained when counting edge pixels found by Laplacian operator. Higher accuracy can be obtained by fusing the measurement of camera focusing with that of ultrasonic sensor. The system designed is experimented within the range of 300-450mm.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.207-216
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• 1999

A phased array is a multi-element piezoelectric device whose elements are individually excited by electric pulses at programmed delay time. One of the advantages of using phased array in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) application over conventional ultrasonic transducers is their great maneuverability of ultrasonic beam. There are some parameters such as the number and the size of the piezoelectric elements and the inter-element spacing of the elements to design phased array transducer. In this study, the characteristic of ultrasonic beam for phased array transducer due to the variation of the number of elements has been simulated for ultrasonic SH-wave on the basis of Huygen's principle. Ultrasonic beam directivity and focusing due to the change of time delay of each element were discussed due to the change of the number of piezoelectric elements. It was found that ultrasonic beam was much more spreaded and hence its sound pressure was decreased as steering angle of ultrasonic beam was increased. In addition, the ability of ultrasonic bean focusing decreased gradually with the increase of focal length at the same piezoelectric elements. However, the ability of beam focusing was improved as the number of consisting elements was increased.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 2011

The ultrasonic guided wave phased array using magnetostrictive patch transducers is proposed. The magnetostrictive transducer has received much attention because it is cost-effective and capable to generate ultrasonic waves with a simple configuration. However, it has not been used for ultrasonic guided wave phased array applications until now. In this paper, we propose a magnetostrictive transducer based phased array system consisting of a multi-channel function generator, power amplifiers and Lamb wave magnetostrictive transducers. To check the performance of the ultrasonic guided wave phased array, several Lamb wave focusing experiments were carried out in an aluminum plate. The results demonstrated the capability of the developed array to focus the Lamb waves at specific target points.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.798-802
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• 2007

The synthetic focusing in the ultrasonic imaging systems has been formed in the way that one element transmits a circular wave and receives an echo signal. The amplitude of the signal transmitted from one element is too small to propagate a long distance so that the SNR(Signal to Noise Ratio) is very low in an image obtained by the synthetic focusing. To solve this problem, a defocusing method which uses several elements has been proposed. In this method, the SNR is improved due to using several elements to transmit the circular wave. But if the number of transmitting elements increases, the phase distortion is severe in the defocusing method. In this paper, we propose a new method that can generate a circular wave using a lot of elements without phase distortion. At first, we generate limited plane waves with different propagation angles and then superpose them to make a circular wave. We show that the circular wave can be used to improve SNR in the real-time 3D ultrasonic imaging as well as the synthetic focusing through computer simulation and experiments.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.116-124
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• 2005

In this paper range measurement systems are designed using an ultrasonic sensor and a camera. An ultrasonic sensor provides the range measurement to a target quickly and simply but its low resolution is a disadvantage. We tackle this problem by employing a camera. Instead using a stereoscopic sensor, which is widely used for 3D sensing but requires a computationally intensive stereo matching, the range is measured by focusing and structured lighting. In focusing a straightforward focusing measure named as MMDH(min-max difference in histogram) is proposed and compared with existing techniques. In the method of structure lighting, light stripes projected by a beam projector are used. Compared to those using a laser beam projector, the designed system can be constructed easily in a low-budget. The system equation is derived by analysing the sensor geometry. A sensing scenario using the systems designed is in two steps. First, when better accuracy is required, measurements by ultrasonic sensing and focusing of a camera are fused by MLE(maximum likelihood estimation). Second, when the target is in a range of particular interest, a range map of the target scene is obtained by using structured lighting technique. The systems designed showed measurement accuracy up to 0.3[mm] approximately in experiments.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.635-641
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• 2011

In ultrasonic testing of dissimilar metal welds, application of phased array technique in terms of incident beam focusing is not easy because of complicated material structures formed during the multi-pass welding process. Time reversal(TR) techniques can overcome some limitations of phased array since they are self-focusing that does not depend on the geometrical and physical properties of testing components. In this paper, we test the possibility of TR focusing on a defect within anisotropic, heterogeneous austenitic welds. A commercial simulation software is employed for TR focusing and imaging of a side-drilled hole. The performance of time reversed adaptive focal law is compared with those of calculated focal laws for both anisotropic and isotropic welds.