Reiterative deconvolution: New technique for time of flight estimation errors reduction in case of close proximity of two reflections

•Time of flight estimation of two interfering ultrasonic reflections is analyzed.•Time of flight estimation is biased when two reflections are in close proximity.•The closer the reflections the larger is the bias error.•Reiterative deconvolution is proposed to reduce these errors.•Experiment results indicate that significant bias error reduction is possible. ToF estimation errors for two reflections have been analyzed. Case of high signal-to-noise ratio was assumed, when accuracy of the order of few nanoseconds can be achieved. It was indicated that additional bias errors are introduced in ToF estimator when other reflection is in close temporal proximity to the reflection of interest. Research demonstrates that iterative deconvolution does not improve the accuracy significantly. Novel technique is suggested which addresses this issue by means of a reiterative deconvolution. Simulation and experimental performance evaluation is presented. Bias error quickly diminishes with every reiteration when using new technique and is below the other errors after few reiterations.