In 1976 the ONR published its first study into Pressure-Tolerant Electronics (PTE) for use in underwater applications. PTE's are components that can be directly exposed to extreme hydrostatic pressure without failure, often housed in an oil-filled chamber. Over the following decades terrestrial electronics have matured serendipitously for these "wet" PTE installations, and today it is common for many sub-sea applications to use at least some PTE's.  

Presently under development at Optonautics is a fault-tolerant quasi-perpetual power supply – a core enabling technology for practical long-endurance AUV’s. The proposed adaptive power supply is developed in a modular pressure-tolerant architecture, uniquely specialized to maximize its subsea mission duty-cycle while providing sufficient surface time for communications. The hostile ocean environment affords an exceptional advantage of immersion-cooling to the proposed power supply while fast-charging in-operando.​

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This adaptive power supply will support the propulsive and "hotel" loads of our long-range planar AUV architecture. 

Optonautics' mission success depends on direct involvement in the on-going testing of electronic components and systems, cycling them through pressure extremes to acquire, in many cases, the first data of its kind for these devices. Pressure-tolerant subsystems undergo rigorous instrumented validation testing in the laboratory. Tracking behavioral changes from extreme pressure cycling provides unique data, useful to Materials Science generally, and Ocean Technologists specifically.

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Our own PTE-adapted sub-modules may be available to approved buyers as each of those sub-projects complete qualification testing. 

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