LOW COST ACOUSTIC SENSORS SUITABLE FOR HIGH DENSITY ARRAY DEPLOYMENT

OUR PROPOSAL DEFINES A DETAILED APPROACH TO DEVELOP A HIGH DENSITY ACOUSTIC ARRAY TO MONITOR AMBIENT ACOUSTIC CONDITIONS. WE PROPOSE AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH INVOLVING PASSIVE INTERROGATION OF FIBER OPTIC INTERFEROMETRIC SENSORSWHICH REQUIRE NO ELECTRONICS TO OPERATE THE TELEMETRY OR SENSORS. THE PROPOSED CONFIGURATION UTILIZING RUGGED SILICAMATERIALS IS CAPABLE OF HIGH ACCURACY OVER SEVERE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. OUR DESIGN UTILIZES THE HIGH SENSITIVITY OF AN INTERFEROMETRIC PROBE TO REALIZE THE SMALLEST POSSIBLE SENSOR. WE ALSO PRESENT A NOVEL TIME DOMAIN MULTIPLEXED APPROACH FOR INTERROGATING THE INTERFEROMETRIC SENSORS PROVIDING A TRUE MEASURE OF THE OPTICAL SHIFTS PRODUCED BY THE PRESSURE EVENTS. OUR PROPOSED SENSOR CONCEPT EMPLOYS SIMPLE FABRICATION TECHNIQUES AND UTILIZES INEXPENSIVE MATERIALS, SUCH THAT PRODUCTION COSTS ARE ESTIMATED TO BE VERY LOW. OUR PHASE 1 EFFORT WILL DESIGN, BUILD AND TEST SUCH A 3 ELEMENT DEMONSTRATION ARRAY EMBODYING THE PROPOSED CONCEPTS. THIS SYSTEM WILL ACCURATELY MONITOR ACOUSTIC SIGNALS BETWEEN 20 HZ AND 10 KHZ.