Patents by Inventor Claire Prada

Claire Prada has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11747307
    Abstract: A method for non-destructive testing of a mechanical part by a multi-element transducer having piezoelectric elements, where: for each element e(i) of the transducer, the emission of an ultrasonic wave at a given frequency and measurement, by each element e(j) distinct from the element e(i), of a time-varying signal kij(t) representing the back-scattered ultrasonic wave received by the element e(j); the determination of a first matrix of time-varying components based on measured signals kij(t), i, j=1, . . . , N; the determination of a second matrix of frequency components corresponding to a determined frequency based on the frequency of the ultrasonic wave by applying a Fourier transform to said first matrix; the filtering of said second matrix comprising a projection of it onto a single scattering sub-space determined by means of a numerical calculation using a ray tracing algorithm; and the verification of the integrity of the mechanical part by using said filtered second matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignees: SAFRAN, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE
    Inventors: Aurélien Baelde, Claire Prada, Frédéric Jenson
  • Publication number: 20230160854
    Abstract: A device, for non-destructive testing of a mechanical part made of a polycrystalline material, includes: an ultrasonic probe including a two-dimensional array of transducers capable of emitting and receiving signals at different excitation angles; and a processing module suitable for controlling the emission and the reception of the transducers, for processing the signals received by the transducers so as to express the signals received by the ultrasonic probe in two planar wave planes constructed from the emission and reception wave vectors of the probe, and for deducing therefrom information representative of the three-dimensional orientation of the fiber structure of the mechanical part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2021
    Publication date: May 25, 2023
    Applicants: SAFRAN, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE, ECOLE SUPERIEURE DE PHYSIQUE ET DE CHIMIE INDUSTRIELLE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
    Inventors: Cecile BRUTT, Benoit GERARDIN, Alexandre AUBRY, Arnaud DERODE, Claire PRADA
  • Patent number: 11480550
    Abstract: The invention concerns a method for the non-destructive mapping of a component, in order to determine an elongation direction of the elongate microstructure of the component at at least one point of interest, characterised in that it comprises at least two successive intensity measurement steps comprising the following steps: a sub-step of rotating a linear transducer into a plurality of angular positions, said linear transducer comprising a plurality of transducer elements, a sub-step of emitting a plurality of elementary ultrasonic beams at each angular position, a sub-step of measuring a plurality of backscattered signals resulting from the backscattering of the elementary ultrasonic beams by said elongate microstructure, the intensity measurement steps making it possible to obtain two series of intensities measured according to two axes of rotation, and in that the method comprises a step of combining the measured series of intensities so as to determine the elongation direction of the microstructure at s
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignees: CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE, SAFRAN
    Inventors: Aurelien Baelde, Frederic Jenson, Claire Prada
  • Publication number: 20220082526
    Abstract: This two-dimensional Fourier transform ultrasound imaging method includes by controlling transmitting and receiving transducers: obtaining M matrices MRm, 1?m?M, of sampled ultrasonic time signals; two-dimensional Fourier transforming each matrix MRm to obtain M spectral matrices FTMRm; converting each spectral matrix FTMRm to obtain M spectral images FTIm; combining the M spectral images FTIm and two-dimensional inverse Fourier transforming the resulting spectral image FTI to obtain an ultrasound image I. The conversion includes taking into account a change of propagation mode during a backscatter, by adding a parameter characterizing this change of mode in equations (SYS) of change of reference frame, and/or taking into account a reflection against a wall, by adding a phase shift term in a relation (REL) of matrix transformation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2019
    Publication date: March 17, 2022
    Inventors: Lucas MERABET, Sébastien ROBERT, Claire PRADA JULIA
  • Patent number: 11085900
    Abstract: A method for nondestructively testing a part comprising an elongate microstructure is disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignees: SAFRAN, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE, ECOLE SUPERIEURE DE PHYSIQUE ET DE CHIMIE, INDUSTRIELLES DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
    Inventors: Aurélien Baelde, Frédéric Jenson, Mathias Fink, Jérôme Laurent, Claire Prada
  • Publication number: 20210239652
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the non-destructive testing of a mechanical part (2) by propagation of ultrasonic waves accomplished by means of a multi-element transducer (3) placed opposite the mechanical part and comprising a plurality of piezoelectric elements e(1), e(2), . . . , e(N), N>1. It comprises: for each element e(i) of the transducer, the emission of an ultrasonic wave at a given frequency and measurement, by each element e(j) distinct from the element e(i), of a time-varying signal kij(t) representing the back-scattered ultrasonic wave received by the element e(j); the determination of a first matrix of time-varying components based on the measured signals kij(t), i,j=1, . . .
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2019
    Publication date: August 5, 2021
    Applicants: SAFRAN, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE
    Inventors: Aurélien BAELDE, Claire PRADA, Frédéric JENSON
  • Patent number: 11054401
    Abstract: A method for processing ultrasound signals including controlling emission transducers for M successive emissions of plane ultrasound waves having M different angles of emission, controlling N reception transducers in order to simultaneously receive N measurement time signals per emission, and obtaining a matrix [MR(t)] of ultrasound time signals, each coefficient MRi,j(t) of this matrix representing the measurement signal received by the i-th reception transducer caused by the j-th emission. It further includes performing singular-value decomposition of a matrix [FTMR(f)] of frequency signals obtained by transforming the matrix [MR(t)], and eliminating a portion of the singular values and reconstructing a denoised matrix [MRU(t)] of time signals on the basis of the singular values not eliminated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignees: Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
    Inventors: Eduardo-Rigoberto Lopez Villaverde, Sebastien Robert, Claire Prada Julia
  • Publication number: 20210025855
    Abstract: The invention concerns a method for the non-destructive mapping of a component, in order to determine an elongation direction of the elongate microstructure of the component at at least one point of interest, characterised in that it comprises at least two successive intensity measurement steps comprising the following steps: a sub-step of rotating a linear transducer into a plurality of angular positions, said linear transducer comprising a plurality of transducer elements, a sub-step of emitting a plurality of elementary ultrasonic beams at each angular position, a sub-step of measuring a plurality of backscattered signals resulting from the backscattering of the elementary ultrasonic beams by said elongate microstructure, the intensity measurement steps making it possible to obtain two series of intensities measured according to two axes of rotation, and in that the method comprises a step of combining the measured series of intensities so as to determine the elongation direction of the microstructure at s
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2019
    Publication date: January 28, 2021
    Inventors: Aurelien BAELDE, Frederic JENSON, Claire PRADA
  • Publication number: 20200080969
    Abstract: A method for acquiring signals via ultrasound probing including: controlling L emission transducers and N reception transducers in order to simultaneously receive, for each of M successive emissions, N measurement signals; obtaining a matrix of ultrasound time signals having a size of N×M. An initial matrix ([MC?]), having a size of L×M', for encoding the successive emissions is previously defined for a number M? of successive initial emissions strictly greater than M. A calculation of acoustic field is carried out for each of the M? initial emissions. A reduced encoding matrix ([MC]), having a size of L×M, is obtained by removal of M??M columns of the initial encoding matrix ([MC?]) on the basis of a selection criterion applied to the M? calculations of acoustic fields. Finally, the control of the L emission transducers for the M successive emissions is encoded using the reduced encoding matrix ([MC]).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2017
    Publication date: March 12, 2020
    Applicants: Commissariat a I'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
    Inventors: Eduardo-Rigoberto LOPEZ VILLAVERDE, Sebastian ROBERT, Claire PRADA JULIA
  • Publication number: 20190360969
    Abstract: A method for nondestructively testing a part comprising an elongate microstructure is disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2018
    Publication date: November 28, 2019
    Applicants: SAFRAN, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE, ECOLE SUPERIEURE DE PHYSIQUE ET DE CHIMIE INDUSTRIELLES DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
    Inventors: Aurélien Baelde, Frédéric Jenson, Mathias Fink, Jérôme Laurent, Claire Prada
  • Publication number: 20190317054
    Abstract: A method for processing ultrasound signals including controlling emission transducers for M successive emissions of plane ultrasound waves having M different angles of emission, controlling N reception transducers in order to simultaneously receive N measurement time signals per emission, and obtaining a matrix [MR(t)] of ultrasound time signals, each coefficient MRi,j(t) of this matrix representing the measurement signal received by the i-th reception transducer caused by the j-th emission. It further includes performing singular-value decomposition of a matrix [FTMR(f)] of frequency signals obtained by transforming the matrix [MR(t)], and eliminating a portion of the singular values and reconstructing a denoised matrix [MRU(t)] of time signals on the basis of the singular values not eliminated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2017
    Publication date: October 17, 2019
    Applicants: Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
    Inventors: Eduardo-Rigoberto LOPEZ VILLAVERDE, Sebastien ROBERT, Claire PRADA JULIA
  • Patent number: 9903842
    Abstract: A method for processing ultrasonic signals includes: controlling a plurality of emission transducers for L successive emissions of ultrasonic waves; controlling N reception transducers to simultaneously receive and for a predetermined time, for each successive emission, N measurement signals; obtaining an array of ultrasonic time signals of size L×N, each coefficient Ki,j(t) of this array representing the measurement signal received by the j-th reception transducer due to the i-th emission; and denoising the time signal array by removing some of the singular values and associated singular vectors obtained from a singular value decomposition of a frequency signal array obtained by transforming this time signal array, and by reconstructing a denoised time signal array based on unremoved singular values and singular vectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2018
    Assignee: Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives
    Inventors: Souad Bannouf, Olivier Casula, Claire Prada Julia, Sebastien Robert
  • Publication number: 20150212051
    Abstract: A method for processing ultrasonic signals includes: controlling a plurality of emission transducers for L successive emissions of ultrasonic waves; controlling N reception transducers to simultaneously receive and for a predetermined time, for each successive emission, N measurement signals; obtaining an array of ultrasonic time signals of size L×N, each coefficient Ki,j(t) of this array representing the measurement signal received by the j-th reception transducer due to the i-th emission; and denoising the time signal array by removing some of the singular values and associated singular vectors obtained from a singular value decomposition of a frequency signal array obtained by transforming this time signal array, and by reconstructing a denoised time signal array based on unremoved singular values and singular vectors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2013
    Publication date: July 30, 2015
    Applicant: COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENE ALT
    Inventors: Souad Bannouf, Olivier Casula, Claire Prada Julia, Sebastien Robert
  • Patent number: 7798000
    Abstract: A laser-based ultrasonic technique for the inspection of thin plates and membranes employs an amplitude-modulated laser source to excite narrow bandwidth Lamb waves. The dominant feature in the acoustic spectrum is a sharp resonance peak that occurs at the minimum frequency of the first-order symmetric Lamb mode, where the group velocity of the Lamb wave goes to zero while the phase velocity remains finite. Experimental results with the laser source and receiver on epicenter demonstrate that the zero group velocity resonance generated with a low power modulated excitation source can be detected using an optical probe such as a Michelson interferometer coupled to a lock-in amplifier. This resonance peak is sensitive to the thickness and mechanical properties of plates and may be suitable, for example, for the measurement and mapping of nanoscale thickness variations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: Trustees of Boston University
    Inventors: Todd W. Murray, Claire Prada, Oluwaseyi Balogun
  • Publication number: 20060173332
    Abstract: The invention relates to an ultrasonic medical imaging apparatus intended for analyzing an organic medium potentially including defects within a noisy structure. Ultrasound signals focused at a given depth according to M distinct successive excitations arc emitted and an image formation module makes it possible to obtain an image of said depth after reception of responses from the medium. The invention is such that the apparatus includes a module for using said responses for constructing a rectangular response matrix of dimension N*M, a coefficient Knm of which represents the response from the medium received by the transducer n following an excitation m, decomposing said response matrix into singular values, using the singular vectors corresponding to said singular values for locating singular zones corresponding to defects in the medium. Application: Ultrasonic apparatus particularly in the medical field.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2003
    Publication date: August 3, 2006
    Inventors: Claire Prada, Claude Chohen-Bacrie, Mathias Fink, Robert Entrekin