Overcoming In-band Interference in Airborne Ultrasounds: A Robust System Design

This paper introduces a novel system designed to enhance the robustness of airborne ultrasound technology against in-band interference. By integrating MEMS-based transceivers, the system achieves ultrasonic pulse-echo operation up to 100 kHz while maintaining low power consumption. A dedicated hardware readout block effectively addresses the signal distortion and encodes the transmission intervals in the received signal. The experimental results demonstrate the key role of hardware-defined reference points for the start of the frame for accurate echo detection. This optimization ensures superior performance compared to the reference system, especially in the presence of in-band interference. The system’s multi-channel readout feature shows potential for applications like 3D object detection and tracking, even in noise-heavy environments.