Recent advances in 1-3 piezoelectric polymer composite transducer technology for AUV/UUV acoustic imaging applications

The use of 1-3 piezoelectric polymer composite has been studied over the years under various U.S. Navy funded transducer research programs. As a transduction material, the 1-3 piezoelectric composite offers many advantages for autonomous/unmanned undersea vehicles (AUV/UUV) imaging array construction. Broad bandwidth, high transmit/receive response, low cost of fabrication, mechanical ruggedness, and the ability to form conformal shapes, make this material both a unique and intriguing medium for the sonar transducer designer. The 1-3 piezocomposite panels are comprised of several piezoceramic rods aligned vertically through the panel´s thickness with each rod surrounded with a specific polymer epoxy. Volume fractions of ceramic to polymer can vary up to 50% with panel thickness ranging between fractions of a millimeter (2-4 MHz) to 25 millimeters (50-70 kHz). This presentation elucidates the application of this unique material to a variety of practical transducer designs and describes some of the device demonstrations along with measured performance data