The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 01, 2009
Filed:
Dec. 04, 2006
John H. Goodemote, Oneida, NY (US);
John H. Goodemote, Oneida, NY (US);
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bethesda, MD (US);
Abstract
An embodiment of the invention is directed to a hybrid geometry type acoustic transducer. A hybrid geometry type acoustic transducer as embodied herein leverages different type transducer physical configurations. More specifically, embodiments of the hybrid transducer combine specific features of traditional Tonpilz resonators and PZT-composite transducers to exploit the beneficial characteristics of both. The outward construction of an embodied hybrid transducer mimics a Tonpilz resonator incorporating a headmass and a tailmass sandwiching a piezoelectric active material. However, rather than using a conventional ceramic ring stack or plate form of active material, a layer of diced or 'pillared' active material is provided between the headmass and the tailmass with no filler material other than a gas, such as air, for example, or others, or a vacuum environment. Acoustic projectors constructed using this invention benefit with higher bandwidth and efficiency due to coupling loss that is lower than in prior designs. Likewise, when a hydrophone is constructed using aspects of this invention, exceptional hydrophone figure of merits are obtained. A method for making a hybrid transducer is described.