MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers designed the hydrophone using common MEMS parts for defense, industrial, and undersea research applications.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers designed the hydrophone using common MEMS parts for defense, industrial, and undersea research applications.
Researchers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory have developed a first-of-its-kind hydrophone built around a simple, commercially available microphone. The device, leveraging a common microfabrication process known as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), is significantly smaller and less expensive than current hydrophones, yet has equal or exceeding sensitivity. The hydrophone could have applications for the U.S. Navy, as well as industry and the scientific research community.
"Given the broad interest from the Navy in low-cost hydrophones, we were surprised that this design had not been pursued before," says Daniel Freeman, who leads this work in the Advanced Materials and Microsystems Group. "Hydrophones are critical for undersea sensing in a variety of applications and platforms. Our goal was to demonstrate that we could develop a device at reduced size and cost without sacrificing performance."
Essentially an underwater microphone, a hydrophone is an instrument that converts sound waves into electrical signals, allowing us to "hear" and record sounds in the ocean and other bodies of water. These signals can later be analyzed and interpreted, providing valuable information about the underwater environment.
Read More: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Image: The MEMS hydrophone, shown above, is based around a commercial MEMS microphone part, offering a sensor that is smaller and less expensive than existing Navy hydrophones, but with comparable or improved performance. (Credits: Photo courtesy of the researchers via Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
