Two single element hydrophones and an eight‐element hydrophone array with side‐looking polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) sensing elements are described. They were designed for measurements in which the ultrasonic beam insonifies the hydrophone from a direction perpendicular to the hydrophone axis. These hydrophones and the array have found various industrial and medical applications, especially for determining the ultrasound exposure of a patientinvivo. The construction and characterization of the hydrophones and the hydrophone array are reported and the directivities of the elements are compared with modeling results.