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TIDA-01486: Regarding differential time of flight due to non-identical OP-AMPs in the reference design

Part Number: TIDA-01486
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MSP430FR6047

Hi,
The following document: www.ti.com | tidudo7 shows the reference design for an ultrasonic flow transmitter reference design employing MSP430FR6047. 

The document specifies that the OP-AMP used in the receiving and transmitting stage should be the same to avoid a differential time of flight in the presence of no flow (Section 2.2.2, paragraph 1).

But why would there be a difference in propagation delay?

For example in Upstream, the following is the signal path (both electrical & US):

MCU -> TX Stage(OP-AMP1) -> US Transducer 1 -> US Transducer 2 -> RX Stage(OP-AMP2) -> MCU

Again in Downstream, the signal path would be:

MCU -> TX Stage(OP-AMP1) -> US Transducer 2 -> US Transducer 1 -> RX Stage(OP-AMP2) -> MCU

As we can see from the above, both the downstream and upstream would have the same signal path and will not show a difference in time of flight for upstream and downstream with zero flow.

Does the document mean a different scenario?

What could be missing from the above explanation?

Thanks in advance

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