Development of Miniature Towed Array Hydrophone Elements with Single PiezoCrystals

"While towed arrays have been commonly employed to detect sonic vibrations in the past, existing towed arrays are subject to extraneous noise due to movement through the water and are sensitive to acceleration forces which may not be due to sonicvibration. Fundamentally, there is much to gain by increasing the signal-to-noise ratio for a given geometrical form factor. Wilcoxon Research, Inc. proposes to advance the state-of-the- art in towed array sensing through the design and development ofhydrophones with single piezocrystals. The Company has garnered significant experience in the design, development and manufacture of directional, acoustic particle velocity transducers with single piezoelectric crystals. These Vector sensors havedemonstrated unprecedented levels of performance at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Acoustic Test Facility in Newport, Rhode Island, and at the Seneca Lake site in New York State. In a similar manner, the Company proposes to develop a newhydrophone transducer, incorporating single piezocrystals, that will enable the TB-16 and TB-29 towed array elements to realize a 5 dB and 13 dB improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio, respectively. The Navy has made a substantial investment inhydrophone development for towed and fixed arrays, ranges, etc., over the past eighty years. With this single piezocrystal hydrophone design, the potential for very low electrical noise referred