Design Considerations for Ultrasonic Signals
Acquisition
Daiana C. Lucena
Federal University of Campina Grande UFCG / Federal
Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paraba
IFPB
Department of Electrical Engineering, Brazil
daiana.lucena@ee.ufcg.edu.br
Juan M.M. Villanueva
Federal University of Paraba UFPB
Department of Electrical Engineering, Brazil
jmauricio@cear.ufpb.br
Abstract This paper presents some considerations about
uncertainty and noise related to ultrasonic transducers in time of
flight estimation for wind speed measurement with pulsed
transmission mode. Experimental results show the noise distribution
in a measurement setup using ultrasonic transducers and the
relation between signal to noise ratio, uncertainties and number of
cycles used in pulsed transmission by transceiver. From these results,
the project considerations for ultrasonic signals acquisition can be
defined, such as number of cycles and uncertainty evaluation.
Keywords noise measurement, time of flight, ultrasonic
transducers
I. INTRODUCTION
Fluid speed measurement is important for many industrial
processes, small scale testing applications, renewable energy
sector (e.g. wind), etc. The instruments used to measure wind
speed (in open air) can be rotational, thermoelectric, ultrasonic,
etc. [1, 2]. However, when the project restrictions point to a
measurement with sufficient accuracy, the instruments based on
ultrasonic transducers stand out, which have low uncertainty
characteristics, reduced response time and minimal
maintenance compared to instruments using other techniques.
In addition, it can be designed to operate intermittently or
pulsed, which is convenient in wind measurement applications
for remote locations where power consumption becomes a
design constraint.
The principle of wind speed measurement using ultrasonic
transducers are based on Time-of-Flight estimation (ToF),
which can be defined as the ultrasonic travel time from the
transmitting transducer until its detection in the receiver
transducer. Wind speed measurement can be done indirectly by
Raimundo C.S. Freire
Federal University of Campina Grande UFCG
Department of Electrical Engineering, Brazil
freire@dee.ufcg.edu.br
Benedito A. Luciano
Federal University of Campina Grande UFCG
Department of Electrical Engineering, Brazil
benedito@dee.ufcg.edu.br
Wendell P. Farias
Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of
Pernambuco IFPE / Federal University of Paraba UFPB
Department of Electrical Engineering, Brazil
wendell.pereira@cear.ufpb.br
estimating the ToF and sound velocity in the measurement
medium.
According to recent surveys [3, 4] the ToF quality
estimation (and hence wind speed) can be associated to
knowledge and evaluation of the noise sources, inherent to the
measurement process. The evaluation of the measurement
process quality of ultrasonic signals, which includes noise, can
be performed in a statistical way obtaining models of
probability density. To help with this information processing,
in metrology and in measurement systems, the Guide to the
Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) is used to
provide mathematical formulations for the uncertainties
evaluation [5].
To define design considerations for ultrasonic signals
acquisition and parameters associated to the signal conditioning
circuits, in this article an experimental evaluation of noise
presented in ultrasonic signals and evaluation of ToF estimation
uncertainties will be done. For this purpose, a setup for wind
speed measurement was constructed using ultrasonic
transducers. The experiments were performed using a low-
speed wind tunnel, conditioning circuits and data acquisition
device.
II. WIND SPEED MEASUREMENT
Fig. 1 shows the setup measurement that uses ultrasonic
transducers with a low speed wind tunnel. The measurement
principle of wind speed () is based on time of flight estimation
(ToF) for a distance (L), angle of transducers alignment (), and
velocity of sound (C) that depends on the medium of
temperature (T).
 vary randomly with time, being evaluated according to a
probability density function or by an autocorrelation function,
being characterized by their statistical properties, average ,
standard deviation u, which represents how far values distance
from the mean, and variance u. The probability density function
determines the probability distribution of a continuous variable.
The thermal and shot noise have normal or Gaussian probability
density function, being specified by mean () and standard
deviation (u), given by (2).

Fig. 1. Measurement setup.
From this configuration, wind speed measurement is given
by:
1 (1)
distribution per frequency (W/Hz) [12].
cos
In Eq. (1) can be observed that the uncertainties related to
temperature, distance, and time of flight are propagated to the
wind speed. Uncertainties in measurement systems express the
expected dispersion for a particular measurement and allow
analyzing the operational capacity of measurement instruments
and methods. The evaluation of the uncertainties propagation
can be performed using GUM [5], which establishes the
mathematical foundations for analysis of uncertainties in
measurement systems from sources of random noises.
In a measurement, noise, which is a signal with the ability to
reduce the intelligibility of a measurement, can change the value
attributed to it, because of that an appropriate uncertainties
evaluation and sources of noise is necessary to provide the
results with less uncertainty and greater reliability.
1 (2)
2
In the frequency domain, the noise can be characterized by
Power Spectral Density S(w) which describes the noise power
III. TECHNIQUES FOR TOF ESTIMATION
Among the conventional techniques for ToF estimation,
exists those based on the Time Difference, such as Threshold
Detection and Phase Difference. And there are also digital
signal processing techniques based on Cross-Correlation,
Kalman Filter, Fourier Transform and Wavelet Transform [6]
[7] [8] [9] [10] [11].
Threshold detection technique consists of transmitting a
sine wave train and measuring the time required for its detection
(ToF) in the receiver transducer, through threshold detection, as
shown in Fig. 2. The measured time value until the detection of
the ultrasonic wave (tM) does not correspond directly to the
reception time due to the delay imposed by the dynamics of the
transducers. The measured time can be expressed as the sum of
the transmission time (ToF) with the detection time (tE), and the
velocity of fluid can be calculated by (3).

In electrical circuits, the common sources of noise are shot,

thermal, flicker, burst and avalanche noise. Shot noise is
associated with a current flow and appears when a load crosses
a potential barrier as a PN junction, being a random event. The
thermal is caused by the thermal agitation of the electrons in a
resistor, being constant throughout the spectrum of frequencies,
also called white noise. Flicker or contact, present in
semiconductor devices such as MOSFETs, BJTs, JFETs and
diodes, variation in conductivity due to contact between two
different materials (such as silicon and aluminum) is one of its
origins, and it appears in joints among materials such as
wrenches and solder points and increases with a decreasing
frequency. Burst is related to imperfections in semiconductor
material, with the appearance of a step voltage with duration of
approximately 10 ms, practically extinct in current operational
amplifiers. Avalanche is created when a PN junction is operated
in the reverse mode. Over influence of a strong reverse electric
field, the electrons have enough kinetic energy for collisions and
form pairs of additional gaps and electrons. The collisions are
random and produce similar and more intense current pulses
Fig. 2. Threshold detection technique.
when compared to the shot noise [12] [7].
The sum of noise sources produces a total power equal to the
sum of power of each source. The noises have amplitudes that
 In phase difference technique, the phase difference between
the transmitted and received ultrasonic waves is measured, as
shown in Fig. 3.
The phase difference verified between transmitted and
received signal is limited from 0 to 2, and the number of
wavelengths to be detected at the receiver must be calculated.
The instantaneous phase at the transmitter and receiver is
= 2 f t, where t is the transit time and the wind speed given
by (4).
1 (3)
cos
1 2 (4)
cos
where: and L is angle and distance between the transducers,
respectively; C is the velocity of sound in the air given by (5),
where T is the temperature in C.
(5)
20.074273.15
Fig. 3. Phase difference technique.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP FOR MEASUREMENT
For the experiments, an Agilent U2331A signal acquisition
unit, two TR40-10L ultrasonic transducers disposed in a
measuring section as shown in Fig. 4, commercial anemometer
TAFR 180, and Agilent 33220A signal generator was used.
The Agilent U2331A is a unit for data acquisition, whose
analog input has 12-bit resolution, with maximum sampling rate
of 3 MSa/s when only one channel is used and 1 Msa/s for more
than one channel. If more than one channel is used, the
maximum sampling rate is divided by the number of channels.
The analogue input acts with input voltage in the range of 0.05
V to 10 V. In the experiments with sampling frequency of 400
kHz, the signals were measured in the transmitter transducer,
and after the conditioning of signal received by receiver
transducer with the U2331A signal acquisition.
The TR40-10L ultrasonic transducer has central frequency
in 40 1 kHz, 3 kHz bandwidth, -70 dB receive sensitivity, 1
kHz 20% capacitance of 1900 pF, 10 V max power supply,
and -40 to 85 C operating temperature.
The TAFR 180 hot wire anemometer was used to perform
wind speed measurements and compare them with ultrasonic
estimates. The TAFR 180 has 0.2 to 20 m/s scales with
resolution of 0,1 m/s and 0,1 km/h, and temperature in range of
0 to 50C, with 0.1C resolution [13] [14].
The measurement section uses a low-speed wind tunnel,
which generates flows of 0 to 15 m/s range. Within the wind
tunnel, the transducers and anemometer were disposed in a
rectangular structure, as shown in Fig. 4.
In the conditioning circuit, a TL084 amplifier was used,
which in range of 1 to 100 kHz presents 16 nV/Hz for noise
level which the input signal is submitted, with test conditions in
the ambient temperature of 25 C, 15 V power supply and gain
of 10 times [15].
Fig. 4. Setup measurement.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To define design considerations for ultrasonic signals
acquisition, experiments were performed to analyze noise
presence in ultrasonic receiver transducer, characterizing its
type. Then, the SNR associated to the ToF estimation was
analyzed by threshold technique, using different packets of
pulses in the emitter transducer.
A. Noise Analysis in the Receiver System
The noise was evaluated through the signal generated by the
ultrasonic receiver with the ultrasonic transmitter without
oscillating source and the conditioning circuit for both fed. The
receiver conditioning circuit consists of an inverter amplifier,
which uses the TL084, as illustrated in Fig. 5. The transmitter
conditioning circuit uses a push-pull.
In Fig. 6 generated signal for transmitting transducer (TX) is
show with oscillating source deactivated and conditioning
circuit fed. The electrical signal in this transducer has low level
and its source was noise presents in electrical circuits. It also
observed the presence of a noise signal measured after
conditioning circuit in receiver (RX) acquired by U2331A.
Fig. 5. Receiver conditioning circuit.
Fig. 6. Receiver and transmitter signal.
In Fig. 7 the receiver spectrum is shown. Principle of
ultrasound operation, based on piezoelectricity effect, captures
vibrations above 20 kHz, present in medium, which explain the
frequency distribution obtained.
Fig. 7. Receiver spectrum.
A histogram obtained from a set of 20 measurements of the
signal generated by the receiver is shown in Fig. 8. For each 20
measurements 2000 samples were acquired, totaling 40000
points that were used to construct the histogram. The Jarque-
Bera statistical test was used to verify if the set of samples had
normal distribution, obtaining positive result. Normal or
Gaussian distribution is characterized by being symmetric and
its highest sample frequency coinciding with the mean value,
with 68.26% of samples in range of 1u, 95.44% in 2u
and 99.74% in 3u, where is mean and u is standard
deviation. Having obtained 0.0109 for the standard deviation
and 0 for the mean.
Fig. 8. Receiver histogram for 20 measurements.
B. ToF estimation using transmission pulsed mode
The transmission mode was pulsed, which can be used to
reduce the power required to transmit and receive the ultrasonic
signal in systems where low power consumption is a design
requirement. Using a structure for wind speed measurement,
with an angle between transducers of 45, measurements were
made using pulsed transmission mode for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and
70 sine wave cycles, with 10 ms interval between transmissions.
In Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 the transmitted (Tx) and received (Rx)
signals are shown for 20 and 40 cycles.
Fig. 9. Transmission pulsed mode: 20 cycles with 10 ms interval.
Fig. 10. Transmission pulsed mode: 40 cycles with 10 ms interval.
 Initially, experiments were performed in still air (with wind cycles of the transmitter, ToF value was estimated, as shown in
velocity at 0 m/s), and for each configuration of pulsed Table 1.
transmission the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) was verified. This
evaluation takes into account the use of the signal acquired by TABEL 1. EXPERIMENTAL VALUES FOR TIME OF FLIGHT, STANDARD DEVIATION
the receiver transducer after a conditioning circuit. Signal to AND SNR WITH 10 M/S AIR VELOCITY.
noise ratio versus the number of cycles is shown in Fig. 11. It Number of Time of Standard Signal to
is observed that the SNR has higher values with increase of Cycles Flight Deviation Noise Ratio
number of cycles, due to greater energy present in a higher ( ( ) (SNR)
number of pulses transmitted. This result can be used to define )
an appropriate number of pulses to be transmitted according to 30 506.05 5.8060 75.0419
the constraints imposed in the acquisition process.
50 483.48 0.7769 78.4023
70 483.65 0.4932 79.4710

The uncertainty of wind speed is related to the uncertainty

of time of flight and temperature. Using the propagation of
uncertainties described in the Guide GUM the uncertainty of
the wind speed is given by [5]:

(6)

Fig. 11. SNR versus Number of cycles.

where: uToF, uT, u are the uncertainties associated with ToF

In order to verify the uncertainties associated with ToF
estimation, a set of 75 signals measurements were collected at
the transmitter and receiver with a sampling frequency of
400k samples/s. The technique used for estimation was
threshold detection, with a threshold detection level of 0.03 V,
and with electronic delay time compensation. From the
experiments performed, it was related the uncertainty of ToF for
different values of numbers of pulses in the transmitter, as shown
in Fig. 12. It is observed that with increase of number of cycles
there is a decrease of the uncertainty, which can be related to an
increase of the SNR as seen in Fig. 11. In addition, it can be
observed that for the cases in which 20 and 30 cycles are
transmitted, estimated values of ToF are far from the reference
value, because threshold detection technique detects a signal
after one or two cycles as a result of insufficient energy to exceed
the threshold value.
measurement, temperature and wind speed, respectively.
Considering the results of Table 1, for case of 70 cycles
transmitted, with an angle between transducers of 45, distance
among transducers 17.19 cm, ambient temperature of 28.1240
C, average speed of 9.84 m/s verified by TAFR 180
anemometer, the speed obtained for the wind was:
1 0.1719 (7)
20,074273.15
0,7071
9.89 /
With uToF = 0.4932 s and uT = 0.0430 C, the uncertainty
of wind speed can be calculated by:

0.2431 14.1946 (8)

273.15

0.5138 /

From the results of Eq. (7) and (8) a confidence interval of

Fig. 12. Standard deviation variation according to number of cycles.
It was then used a wind tunnel, configured to operate at an
airflow velocity of 10 m/s. From ultrasonic signals
measurements in the transmitter and receiver for 30, 50 and 70
measurements can be constructed from [9.37; 10.40] m/s. It is
observed that the value of measurement using TAFR 180
anemometer is within this range (9.84 m/s), resulting in a wind
speed measurement concordant with that of comparison
instrument.
It can also be observed that the value for wind speed
uncertainty (0.5138 m/s) is related to estimation uncertainties
of ToF and temperature. Therefore, for applications in which
low wind speed estimation uncertainty is required, advanced
ToF estimation procedures based on digital signal processing or
artificial intelligence techniques should be used.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this work, an experimental evaluation was made for
ultrasonic time of flight estimation with noise measurements
review in ultrasonic transducers using pulsed transmission.
From the results, it can be observed that the number of cycles
is directly proportional to signal-to-noise ratio, with a reduction
in uncertainties as the number of cycles / signal to noise ratio
increases. Measurement uncertainty of temperature and time of
flight propagates to wind speed and was evaluated through the
GUM.
These procedures could be used to address design constraints
of ultrasonic signal acquisition systems in which low
uncertainties and a high SNR value may be required.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
To the Laboratory LENHS of UFPB for provide a wind
tunnel for accomplishment of experiments.

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