Exploiting Wideband Ultrasonic Signal Reception Trough Spiral-Shaped PVDF Sensors and Second Generation Voltage Conveyors

This paper presents a novel approach for achieving a very simple, wideband ultrasonic signals reception stage. It relies on a piezopolymer broadband sensor and a second generation voltage conveyor (VCII) based electronic interface. The former manages to achieve a bandwidth larger than 60 kHz thanks to its novel shape, whereas the electronic interface takes advantage of the inherent capability of VCIIs of manipulating both voltage and current signals to achieve a large bandwidth while maintaining extremely high conversion gains. The proposed system, although very simple, shows a sensitivity level of −100 dB, which matches commercially available references. The presented results are obtained without any filtration stage. VCII has been implemented through a commercially available AD844, with a supply voltage of ±15 V.