Abstract: A flow meter system includes a first ultrasonic transducer array to be flush-mounted to a pipe. The system also includes a second ultrasonic transducer array to be flush-mounted to the pipe. The system further includes a controller coupled to the first and second ultrasonic transducer arrays and configured to cause bidirectional beam steering between the first and second ultrasonic transducer arrays.

Abstract: A flow meter system includes a first ultrasonic transducer array to be flush-mounted to a pipe. The system also includes a second ultrasonic transducer array to be flush-mounted to the pipe. The system further includes a controller coupled to the first and second ultrasonic transducer arrays and configured to cause bidirectional beam steering between the first and second ultrasonic transducer arrays.

Abstract: A method includes identifying a position of a static reflector near an ultrasonic transmitter. The method also includes transmitting ultrasonic signals from the ultrasonic transmitter. The method further includes receiving reflected ultrasonic signals at an ultrasonic receiver, where the received ultrasonic signals include a direct reflection directly from a target and a multipath reflection indirectly from the target via the reflector. In addition, the method includes identifying a location of the target using the reflections and the identified position of the reflector. The identified position of the reflector can be used to determine which pulses in the received ultrasonic signals are from the direct reflection and which pulses in the received ultrasonic signals are from the multipath reflection. The pulses in the received ultrasonic signals from the multipath reflection could be discarded or combined with the pulses in the received ultrasonic signals from the direct reflection.

Abstract: A gain-boosted telescopic amplifier (100) includes clamping circuits for the bias devices to ensure fast over-voltage recovery. In one embodiment, the gain-boosted telescopic amplifier includes an input pair of NMOS transistors (MP1, MN1), a pair of NMOS gain-boosted cascode transistors (MP2, MN2) and a pair of PMOS gain-boosted cascode transistors (MP3, MN3). The amplifier includes first and second clamping circuits driving the gate terminals of the pair of PMOS cascode transistors, respectively. The clamping circuits limit the gate voltage of the PMOS cascode transistors to be within a threshold voltage from the desired bias voltage. Each clamping circuit can include only a pull-down device, a pull-up device or both. In another embodiment, the amplifier includes clamping circuits driving the gate terminals of the pair of NMOS cascode transistors for limiting the gate voltage of the NMOS cascode transistors to be within a threshold voltage of the desired bias voltage.