Development of a Molecular-Electronic Hydrophone Design with a Linear Acceleration Compensation System Insensitive to the Magnitude of External Hydrostatic Pressure

In this article, a new design of a hydrophone based on molecular electronic (MET) technology has been developed, in which the idea of compensating for external hydrostatic pressure regardless of its magnitude is implemented therefore, the maximum immersion depth of the devices is limited only by the tightness of the connections. In this paper, modeling of external sensitive elements of the structure is carried out in order to determine the optimal characteristics. The proposed hydrophone designs are capable of detecting ultra-low frequency signals (~ 0.01 Hz), which makes it possible to cover the range of the most interesting signals in seismic. In this design, a linear acceleration compensation system is implemented, which makes it possible to dispense with one sensitive element. Also, in the developed design of the MET-hydrophone, a new type of MET-converter with an electronic circuit 2x2 was used for the first time. The article presents the results of a comparison of the sensitivity study of the developed hydrophone design and a hydrophone not equipped with a linear acceleration compensation system. These results confirm a decrease in the sensitivity of the hydrophone to linear accelerations by more than 1.5 times. There is also the possibility to further reduce the level of sensitivity of the hydrophone to linear accelerations. Prototypes of new MET-hydrophone designs have been developed and manufactured, the main characteristics of the prototypes have been determined, theoretical conclusions about the high absolute sensitivity of the hydrophone, the independence of sensitivity from the magnitude of external hydrostatic pressure, the linear dependence of sensitivity on the thickness of the external sensitive elements of the mechanical system, the linearity of the response of the device to external influences have been experimentally confirmed.