Patent ID: 9031811
Filing Date: 2015-05-12
Classification: G01S

Abstract:
1. A pulse-echo ranging system comprising: a first clock generator configured to generate a first clock at a first clock frequency; a second clock generator configured to generate a second clock at a second clock frequency that is lower than the first clock frequency; a burst generator triggered by one of the (i) first clock or (ii) the second clock to generate burst pulses at the first clock frequency or the second clock frequency and configured to convey the burst pulses to be transmitted to a target; a receiving device triggered by one of (i) the first clock or (ii) the second clock to generate an intermediate frequency signal by sampling echo pulses reflected from the target at one of (i) the first clock frequency or (ii) the second clock frequency; and a signal processing device configured to evaluate the intermediate frequency signal to determine the target distance; a switching device arranged between (i) the first and second clock generators at one side and (ii) the burst generator and the receiving device at another side; wherein the switching device is configured to periodically and alternately provide each of the first and second clocks to each of the burst generator and receiving device such that (i) the burst generator is triggered by the first clock while at the same time the receiving device is triggered by the second clock and such that (ii) the burst generator is triggered by the second clock while at the same time the receiving device is triggered by the first clock; and wherein the signal processing device is configured to calculate the target distance as half of the distance between echoes and appearing in an intermediate frequency signal and resulting from the first and second clocks.