USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Charles R Walsh

James G Kelly

Adam Jilling

William J Mueller

There is disclosed an exploder for an underwater weapon which periodically adiates an acoustic signal and activates the weapon only when the echo signal has the same phase as the radiated signal. Thus, echoes from any air-water interface are disregarded.

Acoustic exploder

A dual frequency, polymer hydrophone, array for a submersible vehicle is closed. A mid-frequency transducer array is employed in the forward end of a submersible vehicle. Between the mid-frequency array and a nose portion of the submersible vehicle is a single or multiple board piezoelectric polymer array employed to implement a secondary, high-frequency transducer array. Amplifying and signal conditioning units are mounted adjacent or on one metallic electrode layer or formed integrally thereon to minimize signal lead loss. The piezoelectric polymer material is chosen to have a density coefficient and sound velocity substantially equivalent to an acoustic window in the nose portion of the submersible vehicle and to be substantially transparent to the mid-frequency array. Minimal degradation of the mid-frequency received or transmitted signals occurs due to the transparency of the high-frequency array. Benefits of the present invention include providing wide area search capability with the mid-frequency array and high-resolution homing and object classification, among other things, with the high-frequency transducer array.

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Tiverton, RI, United States of America

Charles R Walsh