High-Power, Low-Frequency, Textured PMN-PT Underwater Projector

The Phase I program demonstrated improved acoustic performance (increased TVR +5dB) of Class V Cymbal Transducers constructed with QorTek TX101 textured piezoceramic material as compared to the same design built with traditional PZT4 piezoceramic. The Phase II program objectives are to continue scale up of QorTek TX101 textured ceramics and to further optimize the Cymbal Transducer design and fabrication for low frequency, high power sonar systems in next generation sonobuoys (i.e. SSQ-125A and beyond). . The technical effort will focus on increased reliability, frequency band optimization, improving and utilizing textured ceramic materials, and packaging. QorTek aims to design and investigate a Textured PMN-based Ceramic Cymbal (TPCC) acoustic source in the Phase II. This new transducer design will leverage the new textured material properties to improve acoustic efficiency, improve bandwidth, and decrease volume. The program will leverage modeling in both COMSOL (QorTeK) and ANSYS (Phase II partner USSI) to develop a 100m disk transducer to be evaluated for the Q-125. In addition to the ceramic development, QorTek will leverage its Digital Direct Drive Amplifier (D3A) technology to further reduce the packaging volume for the Q-125 platform. QorTek will then evaluate the new transduces at USSI/Lapel and perform independent analysis at Seneca.