Strength or control. Existing borehole sources make you choose.

DownBore Dynamics is developing a wide-band tunable downhole seismic source designed to deliver both: high-energy impulses that repeat, at the frequency you select. Watch the pulse each source sends into the rock, or tap one to hold on it.

Tune the DownBore source

How each source rates

Illustrative comparison of source classes, based on their published characteristics. Ring size and brightness show relative signal strength, not measured data. The DownBore source is at pre-prototype stage and its ratings are design targets. Patents pending.

Receivers have been solved twice. The source has not.

Dense geophone arrays, and then fiber-optic sensing, turned the receiver side of subsurface monitoring into a solved problem. A single fiber is now thousands of channels, and it is being installed in mines, geothermal fields and storage sites.

Most of that fiber only listens. Passive monitoring hears rock when it breaks, and the changes that matter most are often quiet. Surface sources have to push energy through weathered ground that strips out the higher frequencies. Existing downhole sources are either low in energy or impossible to repeat.

An installed fiber array is a receiver waiting for a source. That source is what we are building.

How the source is designed to work

A wireline-deployed tool that turns a metered combustion pulse into a controlled seismic impulse, coupled directly to the borehole wall.

Energy source: Pulsed gas combustion. A metered burn rather than a detonation, so the tool is designed to repeat without damaging the hole.
Coupling: Coupled to the borehole wall, transferring energy through a contained fluid. Designed for open or cased holes, wet or dry.
Control: Frequency, pulse shape and timing are set electronically and can change between impulses. Timing can be coded so records stack and several sources can run together.
Low-frequency reach: Designed to operate below 30 Hz, the band that travels farthest and where existing repeatable downhole sources run short of force.
Wave modes: Separate P-wave and S-wave tool configurations, so both compressional and shear velocity can be measured.
Repeatability: Many impulses per deployment, with the signature of each impulse recorded. Built for stacking and time-lapse surveys.
Deployment: Designed around standard wireline conveyance. Fully retrievable, with no well modification.
Platform: The same core technology scales to compact fixed nodes for tunnel walls, surface sites and permanent monitoring.

Everything above is a design target. Numeric specifications are shared with partners under NDA.

One platform, five markets, entered in sequence

Hard-rock mining

First market

Imaging between drill holes to delineate orebodies, characterize rock mass, and track caves, slopes and stress change. Designed to pair with fiber already installed in the mine.

Enhanced geothermal

Primary target

Mapping stimulated fracture networks and watching the reservoir cool between wells, instead of inferring it from wellhead temperature months later.

Oil and gas

Through licensing

Crosswell and time-lapse imaging from existing wells, offered through established wireline service companies.

Carbon storage

Expansion

Repeat surveys from permanent installations to track the CO₂ plume and verify caprock integrity.

Infrastructure and border security

Expansion

Detecting tunnels and voids along fiber-instrumented corridors by imaging the void itself, rather than waiting for digging noise.

Where we are

We are at pre-prototype stage. The patent position and the feasibility work came first; the seed round funds the hardware.

Done
Concept and patents
Twelve provisional applications filed.
Done
Feasibility analysis
Modeled against published field data.
Raising for this now
Prototype and bench test
Build the first tool and measure its output.
Next
Field demonstration
Repeatability statistics in a test well.
Then
Operator pilot
Active imaging with an operator's installed fiber.

Twelve provisional patent applications filed across eight families, covering source hardware, waveform control, coded acquisition and monitoring methods. Nonprovisional conversion is under way.
Invited by the U.S. National Science Foundation to submit a full SBIR Phase I proposal (September 2026).
Feasibility analysis completed against published data from a U.S. geothermal field laboratory. Available on request.
Technical discussions in progress with mine operators, geothermal developers and fiber-sensing companies.

Work with us

Investors

We are raising a seed round to build and bench-test the first prototype. Start with the one-page summary; the deck follows a conversation.

Email for the one-pager

Operators

If you run a mine, a geothermal field or a storage site with boreholes or fiber in the ground, we are looking for field-trial hosts and real monitoring problems to design against.

Email about a field trial

Sensing and service companies

Every installed fiber array is a receiver without a source. We are open to joint demonstrations, OEM integration and licensing.

Email about partnering

Team

Jacob Andersen

Founder and CEO

MBA. Principal investigator on a U.S. Department of Energy SBIR Phase I award. Has also led a commercial field demonstration at an operating copper mine.

Dr. John Hinkey

Co-Founder and CTO

PhD combustion and aerospace engineer with more than 25 years in pulsed energy systems.