Electronic drive system and technique for ultrasonic transducer

Claim 1

Apparatus for the non-destructive and non-invasive testing of objects comprising: ultrasound transducer means, said transducer means including a piezoelectric crystal having a coaxial array of annular electrodes on at least one surface thereof, said transducer means generating a beam of ultrasonic energy in response to the application of electrical drive signals to said electrodes of said array; electrical drive signal generating means, said drive signal generating means being equal in number to the electrodes of said array, said drive signal generating means each including: an oscillator, said oscillator providing an output signal; a counter which receives the output signal of said oscillator as an input, said counter having a plurality of output terminals; decoder means, said decoder means having input terminals connected to said counter output terminals and providing a plurality of output signal which vary in number as a function of the elapsed time since the initiation of generation of an output signal by said oscillator; and summation means selectively coupled to the outputs of said decoder means for forming a composite sum-difference of the output signals of said decoder means, said composite signal having a preselected waveform; means for delivering the composite signals provided by individual of said drive signal generator means as drive signals to individual of said electrodes; means for individually controlling the time of application of signals from said drive signal generator means to said delivering means to thereby vary the focal length of the generated beam of ultrasonic energy, said controlling means individually gating said drive signal generating means oscillators into the operative state to initiate the generation of an output signal by said oscillators; and receiver means connected to said transducer means, said receiver means being responsive to electrical signals commensurate with the incidence on said transducer means crystal of ultrasonic energy reflected from the object being tested for providing information commensurate with a characteristic of the test object.