Patent GB-1080909-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to frequency selective systems
Inventor: FAIR IRVIN EFNEST
IPC: H03H9/44
Filed: 1964-12-18
Abstract: 1,080,909. Frequency - filtering systems. WESTERN ELECTRIC CO. Inc. Dec. 18, 1964 [Dec. 24, 1963 (2)], No. 51514/64. Heading H3U. A frequency selective system comprises a delay line of any suitable ultrasonic wave propagation material, e.g. an isotropic material such as glass or vitreous silica or a metal alloy of grain size small compared to the wavelength to be carried, an ultrasonic diffraction grating having a length of a plurality of wavelengths of ultrasonic wave energy in a given frequency band, means including a piezoelectric transducer mounted at one end of the delay line for directing ultrasonic waves at grazing incidence along the grating, and a piezoelectric transducer extending for a plurality of said wavelengths in a direction normal to the direction in which ultrasonic energy in said band is diffracted to convert this energy into electrical signals. As shown in Fig. 2, the grating 20 which diffracts the frequeney f n  comprises transversely extending discontinuities 32 in the lower surface 12 of the delay line 10 which are formed by milling parallel grooves 31 in the surface 12. The centres of the grooves 31 are spaced # n  apart, the width of each groove being preferably #n/2 to minimize reflection of harmonics and the depth less than #n/4 and preferably #n/10. A greater depth appears to produce an undesirable " shadow " upon successive grooves. Each discontinuity 32 acts as a virtual source, each source being in phase for energy of frequency f n  as shown by the circles 33, a line 34 drawn tangentially to which represents a wavefront moving in a direction at right angles to the grating 20, as also do each of the lines 35 parallel to line 34. Since the transducer 23 is parallel to these lines 34, 35, all points on its face are subjected to the same tension or compression simultaneously and the resulting piezoelectric response produces an electrical output from the transducer representative of the input signal from the transducer 16 of frequency f n . In one embodiment (Fig. 1, not shown), the transducer 16 is connected to an electrical source of signal frequencies f 1 , f 2 . . . f n  and a number of transducers having longitudinal extents each a multiple of wavelengths # 1 , # 2  . . . # n , respectively, are located along the upper surface of the delay line 10 while diffraction gratings of similar longitudinal extents to the transducers are disposed along the lower surface at points opposite the respective transducers. The construction of the gratings is such that bands of ultrasonic wave energy centred about the frequencies f 1 ,f 2 . . . f n  will be diffracted as beams travelling normal to the gratings and will be received by the respective transducers. The end of the delay line opposite the transducer is provided with an accoustical wave absorber. The multifrequency input signal is thus divided into distinct bands each of which appears independently at an output transducer and which has a time delay proportional to the sum of the distance from the input to its grating and the distance from this grating to its output transducer. The time separation between the bands may be increased or decreased by having the upper surface of the delay line inclined to the lower surface by an angle 0 (Fig. 4, not shown), whereupon the grating spacings #<SP>1</SP> are related to the wavelengths by the equation in order that the bands are directed at right angles to the output transducers. In an alternative embodiment (Fig. 5, not shown), there is but one diffraction grating and one output transducer, the grating spacing varying between # 1  at one end of the delay line and # 2  at the other, these spacings corresponding to the frequencies f 1 ,f 2  which are the limits of a band of frequencies produced by the input transducer.