Underwater acoustic sensing is important across offshore energy, environmental monitoring, maritime security, defence and subsea robotics. As marine industries adopt more autonomous systems and distributed monitoring networks, demand is growing for acoustic sensors that can be deployed more widely and manufactured efficiently.
Coltraco-DIRDI is undertaking an Innovate UK-backed feasibility and prototyping study examining the technical, commercial and manufacturing viability of a MEMS hydrophone developed and manufactured on a UK-sovereign basis.
The project will investigate whether Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) techniques could support smaller, scalable underwater acoustic sensors while strengthening UK capability in sensor research, development and manufacture.
What is a MEMS hydrophone?
A hydrophone is a sensor that converts underwater acoustic pressure waves into electrical signals. Hydrophones are used to detect, measure and characterise underwater sound across scientific, industrial, environmental and security applications.
A MEMS hydrophone applies Micro-Electromechanical Systems manufacturing techniques to this type of underwater acoustic sensing.
MEMS processes allow very small mechanical and electrical components to be manufactured using microfabrication techniques. Applying these methods to hydrophones creates opportunities to investigate different approaches to sensor size, production, integration and scalability.
Research into MEMS-based underwater acoustic sensors is already progressing internationally, including work into miniaturised sensors and hydrophone arrays for underwater acoustic detection.
For Coltraco-DIRDI, however, the study goes beyond whether a MEMS hydrophone can technically be produced. It will examine whether the technology can provide a viable sensing capability that can also be manufactured and developed commercially within the UK.
Why is underwater acoustic sensing important?
Sound is one of the principal ways of detecting and understanding activity beneath the water.
Underwater acoustic sensing can support applications ranging from infrastructure monitoring to environmental research and the detection of underwater activity. Its importance is increasing as offshore and subsea operations become more complex and autonomous marine technologies become more widely used.
Potential applications include:
- offshore energy infrastructure;
- environmental and ocean monitoring;
- maritime security and defence;
- autonomous marine systems;
- subsea robotics and distributed sensing networks.
These applications can require sensors that are suitable for deployment across different platforms and, in some cases, in greater numbers.
For applications involving large or distributed sensing networks, some conventional hydrophone designs can present challenges around cost, physical size, integration and manufacture at scale.
The Coltraco-DIRDI project will examine whether MEMS manufacturing techniques could provide another route.
What will the Coltraco-DIRDI feasibility study examine?
The Innovate UK-backed project will assess the technical, commercial and manufacturing viability of hydrophones produced using MEMS techniques.
Building on early-stage published academic research, manufacturing feasibility work and technical analysis, the project will undertake further development and prototyping.
The study will examine whether MEMS techniques could support a hydrophone that is less expensive to manufacture while providing the sensing capability required for practical underwater applications.
These are objectives of the research rather than proven outcomes.
The project must therefore consider more than whether a prototype works. Sensor performance, manufacturing repeatability, reliability, scalability and commercial viability all form part of understanding whether the technology can progress further.
Could MEMS hydrophones make underwater sensing more scalable?
Scalability is one of the central areas being investigated.
Distributed underwater sensing can require multiple sensors operating across a wider area. The cost, size and production requirements of the individual sensors can therefore have a major impact on what is practical.
MEMS manufacturing offers a different production approach.
If the feasibility study demonstrates the required technical and manufacturing characteristics, MEMS hydrophones could potentially support underwater acoustic sensing applications where smaller sensors or greater numbers of sensing points are required.
This may become increasingly relevant as autonomous marine systems, offshore renewable energy infrastructure and large-scale environmental monitoring create demand for more distributed underwater sensing.
However, manufacturing scale alone is not enough. Any technology must also deliver the necessary acoustic performance, reliability and consistency.
This is why the Coltraco-DIRDI study combines technical development with manufacturing and commercial analysis.
Why does UK-sovereign sensor manufacturing matter?
The project also addresses a wider issue: where strategically important sensing technologies are researched, developed and manufactured.
As an emerging technology, MEMS hydrophones provide an opportunity to investigate whether greater capability can be established within the UK before manufacturing supply chains become firmly established elsewhere.
The project’s approved rationale also identifies the concentration of traditional piezoelectric hydrophone manufacturing in East Asia as a reason to examine whether emerging MEMS hydrophone technology can instead be developed and manufactured domestically.
Coltraco-DIRDI aims to undertake this work on a UK-sovereign basis, helping retain and develop technical knowledge, skills, investment and manufacturing capability within the UK.
The objective is therefore broader than developing an individual prototype.
It is also about understanding whether a promising sensor technology can move from research through engineering and development towards UK manufacture.
How does the project support Coltraco-DIRDI’s Sovereign Sensor Capability?
The MEMS hydrophone study is a practical example of the work being undertaken within Coltraco-DIRDI’s Sovereign Sensor Capability.
Through its Scientific Services, Coltraco-DIRDI works across research, feasibility studies, sensor development, proof-of-concept work, prototyping and engineering.
Its capabilities include acoustic and ultrasonic technologies alongside other sensing and measurement disciplines.
The aim is to connect scientific research with the engineering and manufacturing capabilities needed to take technologies through different stages of development.
The MEMS hydrophone study follows that approach.
It begins with published academic research and technical analysis, progresses into feasibility assessment and prototyping, and considers from an early stage what would be required to manufacture the technology within the UK.
The project also aligns closely with the work of the Durham Institute of Research, Development and Invention (DIRDI) and Coltraco’s specialist expertise in underwater acoustics.
Where could MEMS hydrophone technology be used?
If the technical and manufacturing objectives of the study can be demonstrated, MEMS hydrophone technology could have applications across several parts of the maritime environment.
Offshore energy operators require monitoring technologies to understand infrastructure and activity below the surface. Environmental researchers use underwater acoustic data to study marine environments.
Autonomous marine systems and subsea robotics can also use acoustic sensing for detection, monitoring, communication and situational awareness.
Defence and maritime security applications create additional requirements for underwater sensing and acoustic analysis.
Although these sectors have different needs, they share a requirement for reliable underwater acoustic information.
The study will help establish where MEMS technology may offer practical advantages and where further research or development would still be required.
How does research progress towards UK manufacture?
Developing sovereign sensor capability requires more than undertaking scientific research in the UK.
Promising concepts must be assessed for technical feasibility, engineered into practical designs and considered from a manufacturing perspective.
For Coltraco-DIRDI, this means examining the route from research to production from an early stage rather than treating manufacturing as a separate question later in development.
The MEMS hydrophone project brings together underwater acoustic expertise, scientific research, prototyping and manufacturing feasibility analysis.
Through this work, Coltraco-DIRDI aims to establish whether MEMS hydrophones could contribute to a future UK capability in advanced underwater acoustic sensing.
Developing the UK’s underwater acoustic sensing capability
MEMS hydrophones present a potential route towards smaller and more scalable underwater acoustic sensing as demand grows across maritime, offshore and subsea applications.
The purpose of the current study is to establish what can realistically be achieved.
Through its Innovate UK-backed feasibility and prototyping work, Coltraco-DIRDI will examine the technical, commercial and manufacturing case for MEMS hydrophone technology while assessing how the capability could be developed and manufactured on a UK-sovereign basis.
The project is therefore both an investigation into an emerging sensing technology and a practical example of Coltraco-DIRDI’s wider research-to-manufacturing strategy.
