Patent ID: 8648612
Filing Date: 2014-02-11
Classification: G01F,G01S

Abstract:
1. A device for using electromagnetic pulses to determine a distance to a surface, comprising: a signal propagation device, for transmitting a pulsed measuring signal towards the surface, and receiving a reflection signal reflected from the surface, a pulse generator for providing the pulsed measuring signal to the signal propagating device, a real time sampler for receiving an input signal and sampling said input signal to provide a sampled input signal, processing circuitry, connected to receive the sampled signal from the sampler, and a calibration unit, having a signal generator for generating a calibration signal with a predefined frequency, wherein, in a calibration mode, the real time sampler receives as input signal the calibration signal from the calibration unit, and the processing circuitry is arranged to determine an average sample time delay of the sampler based on the sampled calibration signal and the known calibration frequency, and wherein, in a measurement mode, the real time sampler receives as input signal the reflection signal from the propagation device, and the processing circuitry is arranged to determine said distance based on a sampled reflection signal and the average sample time delay.