Enhancing the ultrasonic sensor performance by the optimisation of the driving signal

The issue arising from limitations in sensor performance is crucial in most measuring systems, so it is a matter of high interest to define strategies able to optimize a sensor's behaviour. This paper describes a method for determining a sensor driving signal that enhances the sensor capabilities in stimulation-and-response-based measuring systems. The method is based on a signal theory approach and is quite general, enabling the best performance for different kinds of sensors to be obtained, provided that they can be described in terms of transgfer functiions and that the required performance can be represented by suitable functionals. The method's capabilities are shown in an application involving the measurement of the time-of-flight of ultrasonic pulses. A resolution improvement of more than one order of magnitude is achieved with respect to the standard approaches, still employing low-cost low-damping devices.