Patent ID: 7113876

Claim:
Circuitry for calculating a damping factor for a transient signal received having been emitted from a resonator-type sensor element, the circuitry comprising: (a) a threshold comparison circuit adapted or converting the transient signal received into a first and second digital waveform; said first digital waveform representing cycle crossings of the transient signal associated with a first threshold value, and said second digital waveform representing cycle crossings of the transient signal associated with a second threshold value, said first and second threshold value being less than or equal to an initial amplitude value of the transient signal received; (b) a first and second digital counter, said first counter adapted for determining a first total cycles of said first digital waveform and said second counter adapted for determining a second total cycles of said second digital waveform; and (c) a processing unit for the calculating of the damping factor using said first and second threshold values, and a difference between said second and first total cycles so counted.