Polymeric Piezoelectric Transducers for Hydrophone Applications

Abstract

Conventional ceramic piezoelectric materials have been used in hydrophones for sonarapplications since 1940's. In the last few years since the discovery of polymeric piezoelectrichydrophones, the technology has matured, applications have emerged in extraordinary number ofcases such as underwater navigation, biomedical applications, biomimetics, etc. Hydrophones areused underwater at high hydrostatic pressures. In the presence of hydrostatic pressures, theanisotropic piezoelectric response of ceramic materials is such that it has poor hydrophone performancecharacteristics whereas polymeric piezoelectric materials show enough hydrostatic piezoelectriccoefficients. Moreover, piezoelectric polymers have low acoustic impedance, which is only 2-6 timethat of water, whereas in piezoelectric ceramics, it is typically 11-time greater than that of water. Aclose impedance match permits efficient transduction of acoustic signals in water and tissues. Newlydeveloped hydrostatic-mode polyvinylidene flouride (PVDF) hydrophones use a pressure-releasesystem to achieve improved sensitivity. Recently, voided PVDF materials have been used for makinghydrophones having higher sensitivity and figure of merit than unvoided PVDF materials.