Broadband sonar considerations for small underwater vehicle applications

As underwater vehicles become more prevalent, so too does the design and integration of compact broadband sonar arrays. Rather than rely on conventional tonpilz technology, where the bandwidth is governed by the width of the transducer’s mechanical resonance, designers must consider other transducer technologies that are better suited to small vehicle packaging constraints. These constraints include operational ruggedness, light weight, conformability, and low cost. This talk advocates the use of 1–3 piezocomposite and discusses the rationale behind such a selection. In going to a wideband material such as a 1–3 piezocomposite, with typical mechanical quality factors (Qm) around 2, the selection of where to place the resonance frequency differs from that of its tonpilz counterpart. For the tonpilz array, the sonar operational bandwidth is totally governed by the resonance response of the array element and is typically limited to approximately its 3-dB or half power points. Relaxor-based ferroelectric materials such as single crystal PMN-PT, which exhibit extremely large electromechanical coupling coefficients, cannot attain 3-dB bandwidths of a decade or more when configured in a tonpilz design. This presentation will discuss a 1–3 piezocomposite-based approach that places mechanical resonance near the upper band edge of an operational bandwidth of 1 decade (10–100 kHz).