Sub-array equalization technique for the parametric array loudspeaker to reduce nonlinear distortion

The parametric array loudspeaker (PAL) is a directional loudspeaker which uses the nonlinear acoustic effect, namely the parametric array, to produce an audio beam from narrow ultrasonic beams. The PAL can efficiently deliver audible information, without generating noise to the surroundings. One significant drawback of the PAL is the nonlinear distortion. Therefore, many sophisticated methods have been proposed to preprocess the input signal of the PAL. However, those methods usually request a flat frequency response of the ultrasonic transducer array (UTA). In the past, equalization has been tried out for the whole UTA, but the performance was sometimes not satisfactory due to the inconsistent productions of ultrasonic transducers. This paper proposes to group the ultrasonic transducers by their impedances. Several sub-arrays are thereafter formed and equalized individually. The comparison results demonstrate that the propose sub-array equalization technique can suppress the nonlinear distortion of the PAL more effectively than the previous method