Analysis of the crosstalk in an underwater planar array transducer by the equivalent circuit method

A planar array transducer consists of several transducers arranged on an acoustic window, which causes crosstalk. The crosstalk is a phenomenon in which the acoustic pressure generated by a projector is transferred to adjacent hydrophones through the acoustic window and the transferred pressure generates noise signals in the hydrophones. The performance of the planar array transducer is deteriorated due to this acoustic interaction, which should be minimized for maximum array performance. Analysis of the crosstalk has been carried out with sophisticated numerical methods, which motivated the need to develop a simpler and accurate analysis method. In this work, an equivalent circuit has been developed to analyze the crosstalk level of the planar array transducer, and the validity of the developed method has been verified by comparing the result from the equivalent circuit analysis with that from finite element analysis.