Design and implementation of beaded cilia MEMS vector hydrophone

Abstract

In view of the problem that the increased difficulty of underwater moving targets detection caused by the development of acoustic stealth technology, a beaded cilia MEMS vector hydrophone (BCVH) is proposed in this paper. Compared with previous cilia structures, it can enlarge the receiving area of acoustic wave to improve sensitivity without the introduction of additional structures. Meanwhile, the introduction of additional mass and the loss of working frequency band are reduced, and the structure is manufactured at one time. In this paper, the design scheme and optimal size of BCVH are determined via theoretical analysis and simulation, then vector hydrophone calibration system is used to verify it. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of BCVH reaches −183.3 dB (@1kHz, 0dB=1V/μPa), 13.7 dB higher than bionic cilia MEMS vector hydrophone (CVH). Moreover, the depth of concave point of BCVH is more than 30 dB, which has a good directivity.