Application of Relaxor Piezoelectric Single Crystals for existing underwater communication systems

An underwater voice communication system is mandated for all the US naval surface ships and submarines. The current communication system employs two standard transducers a low frequency transducer for long range communication and a high frequency transducer for shorter ranges but with better quality. By exploiting the unique properties of single crystals, this proposal suggests to replace both transducers with a compact single wideband single crystal transducer. In Phase-I Harris will conduct the performance analysis of such a transducer along with the analysis of changes needed to match such a transducer to the existing electronics. A cost analysis, to estimate the potential savings in life cycle costs from the development will also be part of the Phase-I research. Phase -II will focus on developing the full prototype transducer and test procedures for deployment. Once developed, the transducer will not only be suitable for the existing underwater communication system but also will allow new applications that will exploit the wider bandwidth of the transducers.