Hydrophone transduction mechanism

U.S. Patent Number: 5394378

Abstract: A sensing portion for an interferometric planar hydrophone is disclosed which comprises: a support assembly; a plurality of hollow compliant mandrels mounted to the support assembly in a fixed planar relationship with respect to each other to form a planar configuration; a sensing optical fiber sequentially wound around each of the plurality of mandrels to form a single, serial, optical sensing arm or path between an input position on a first one of the plurality of mandrels and an output position on a last one of the plurality of mandrels; and an acoustically transparent material encapsulating the sensing portion to form a sealed compliant planar hydrophone. In an operational system, an interferometric planar hydrophone is disclosed which comprises: the sensing portion in which the sensing arm is operative to measure a predetermined measurand in a preselected environment and which sensing portion further includes a reference optical fiber environmentally isolated from the predetermined measurand; a light source for transmitting coherent light to both of the sensing and reference optical fibers; and circuitry responsive to light received from the sensing and reference optical fibers for developing an output signal indicative of phase shift differences between the sensing and reference optical fibers to determine the predetermined measurand.

Inventors: Dandridge; Anthony (Burke, VA), Yurek; Aileen M. (Alexandria, VA), Tveten; Alan B. (Fort Washington, MD)

Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy (Washington, DC)

Application Number: 08/078,887

Issued: 1995-02-28

Expired: 2007-02-28

Classes: 367/149 ; 356/478

Field of search: 367/149,140,141 356/345

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