Abstract
The existing MEMS bionic vector hydrophone has the problems of low‐sensitivity and narrow‐working band, and the sensitivity and working bandwidth cannot be improved simultaneously by changing the single microstructural parameter. In this paper, the MEMS bionic vector hydrophone microstructural parameters (length, width and height of cantilever, side length of the center block, height and radius of the rigid cylinder) have been optimized simultaneously to obtain a higher sensitivity at the almost same working bandwidth. Firstly, through the mechanical analysis of the microstructure, the objective function and feasible region are established to optimize the parameters of the microstructure, and a set of optimized parameters is obtained. Secondly, the optimized structure is verified by ANSYS simulation, and then, the optimized four‐beam structure is fabricated by the MEMS manufacturing technology. Finally, these two kinds of hydrophones (the previous one and the optimized one) are produced, and their performance tests are carried out. The testing results show that the performances of the optimized hydrophone have been greatly improved, exhibiting a receiving sensitivity of −181.2 dB@1 kHz (increasing by 6.5 dB, 0 dB reference 1 V/μ Pa), the frequency response ranging from 20 Hz to 1 kHz which is the same working bandwidth as before, and a good dipole directivity. The optimization researches in this paper provide a method and idea for the performance improvement of the following MEMS vector hydrophone.
Highlights
With the continuous consumption of land resources, the huge resources in the deep ocean will become precious and provide the abundant substances that human beings need to live by including the energy, mine, and biology [1, 2]
The sensitivity of the hydrophone has been improved by replacing the previous cylinder structure with five different new structures, which are, respectively, the cup-shaped MEMS vector hydrophone designed by Xu et al [17], the two-component cilia cylinder MEMS vector hydrophone proposed by Xu et al [18], the cilia cluster MEMS vector hydrophone developed by Zhang et al [19], the dumbbell-shaped ciliary MEMS vector hydrophone reported by Ji et al [20], and the hollow cilium cylinder vector hydrophone presented by Yang et al [21]
To better realize the engineering application of the MEMS vector hydrophone, this paper introduces the optimal designs of the hydrophone microstructure to further improve its sensitivity without changing working bandwidth
Summary
With the continuous consumption of land resources, the huge resources in the deep ocean will become precious and provide the abundant substances that human beings need to live by including the energy, mine, and biology [1, 2]. The sensitivity of the hydrophone has been improved by replacing the previous cylinder structure with five different new structures, which are, respectively, the cup-shaped MEMS vector hydrophone designed by Xu et al [17], the two-component cilia cylinder MEMS vector hydrophone proposed by Xu et al [18], the cilia cluster MEMS vector hydrophone developed by Zhang et al [19], the dumbbell-shaped ciliary MEMS vector hydrophone reported by Ji et al [20], and the hollow cilium cylinder vector hydrophone presented by Yang et al [21] They increased varying degrees of the difficulty of the hydrophone fabricating process and reduced the consistency of the hydrophone production. The parameters of cylinder structure and fourbeam microstructure are optimized simultaneously, aiming to further improve the sensitivity of the hydrophone and retain the same working bandwidth
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