Advanced Piezoelectric Materials in Maritime Surveillance Systems

As the ocean ambient background noise levels have increased and foreign adversary submarines have become quieter the U.S. Navy’s need to outpace developing threats is as urgent as it was during the Cold War. In order to maintain a competitive advantage new materials, devices and systems must be quickly developed and fielded in a cost-effective way. During this project QorTek will utilize its advanced textures piezoelectric ceramics, TX101. Which has shown sensitivity improvements of 6-12 dB over convention piezo ceramics. Texture ceramics are considerably more durable than single crystal piezo and can be manufactured in large volumes at a lower cost. TX101 will be coupled with a novel accelerometer and hydrophones designs, to produce a next generation vector sensor. Building on the success of the Phase I SBIR and moving into the Phase II, QorTek's overall objectives are to increase the sensitivity of the accelerometers and hydrophone, while packaged in a housing capable of withstanding water pressures as high as 10 KPsi and mission lengths in excess of 20 years.