A pulser/receiver for generating and receiving ultrasonic pulses in the form of chirps, for use by an ultrasonic transducer. The pulser has a transmit path having a direct digital synthesizer operable to generate a chirp signal; a converter operable to convert the chirp signal to a transmit signal having a single ended voltage, a voltage amplifier and a power amplifier. Switches deliver the transmit signal to the transducer in a transmit mode but isolate the transmit path in a receive mode. The transmit signal and the received signal are both delivered to a switch, which sends the transmit signal through an attenuator but bypasses the attenuator in receive mode. Both the attenuated transmit signal and the receive signal are then ready for arrival time processing by a matched filter.
Nathan Richter; Jay Fisher