Denis Donlagic

All-fiber high-sensitivity pressure sensor with SiO 2 diaphragm

The design and fabrication of a miniature fiber Fabry-Perot pressure sensor with a diameter of 125 microm are presented. The essential element in the process is a thin SiO2 diaphragm that is fusion spliced at the hollow end of an optical fiber. Good repeatability and high sensitivity of the sensor are achieved by on-line tuning of the diaphragm thickness during the sensor fabrication process. Various sensor prototypes were fabricated, demonstrating pressure ranges of from 0 to 40 kPa to 0 to 1 MPa. The maximum achieved sensitivity was 1.1 rad/40 kPa at 1550 nm, and a pressure resolution of 300 Pa was demonstrated in practice. The presented design and fabrication technique offers a means of simple and low-cost disposable pressure sensor production.

Miniature fiber-optic pressure sensor with a polymer diaphragm.

The fabrication and experimental investigation of a miniature optical fiber pressure sensor for biomedical and industrial applications are described. The sensor measures only 125 microm in diameter. The essential element is a thin polymer diaphragm that is positioned inside the hollow end of an optical fiber. The cavity at the fiber end is made by a simple and effective micromachining process based on wet etching in diluted HF acid. Thus a Fabry-Perot interferometer is formed between the inner fiber-cavity interface and the diaphragm. The fabrication technique is described in detail. Different sensor prototypes were fabricated upon 125 microm-diameter optical fiber that demonstrated pressure ranges from 0 to 40 and from 0 to 1200 kPa. A resolution of less than 10 Pa was demonstrated in practice. The fabrication technique presented facilitates production of simple and low-cost disposable pressure sensors by use of materials with that ensure the required biocompatibility.

LOW BENDING LOSS MULTIMODE FIBER TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

This paper presents a high bend tolerant multimode optical fiber transmission system that is compatible with standard 50 microm graded index multimode fiber, in terms of achievable bandwidth and interconnectivity losses. When the 10 loops of the proposed bend resistive multimode fiber were wrapped around a cylinder of 1.5 mm radius, bend losses below -0.2 dB were achieved in case of experimentally produced fiber. Furthermore, when the section of the proposed bend resistive fiber was inserted between two sections of a standard 50 microm graded index multimode fiber, the total experimental measured loss proved to be below -0.15 dB.

Opportunities to enhance multimode fiber links by application of overfilled launch

This paper investigates possibilities for the practical design of high-performance multimode fibers (MMFs) that can provide bandwidths in excess of 10 GHz/spl middot/km in an overfilled regime of operation. Analysis of standard MMF in an overfilled launch demonstrates that the theoretical bandwidth limitations arise from the influence of cladding on the propagation of the highest order modes. Practical MMF profile designs that overcome this problem are investigated. The standard 50- and 62.5-/spl mu/m fiber profiles are redesigned first to allow for the performance in an overfilled launch with the differential mode delays (DMDs) below 0.055 and 0.250 ns/km, respectively. It is shown that such fibers can exhibit the same or better theoretical bandwidth in an overfilled launch when compared to standard fiber under restricted launch. Elimination of the need for the restricted mode launch in high-performance multimode transmission systems can improve reliability issues and can relax the range of tolerance requirements imposed on terminal equipment, optical components, and link installation. Furthermore, MMFs that can be operated in an overfilled launched are compatible with emerging vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) array technologies. A successfully controlled higher order mode DMD also allows for the reduction of MMF core size and /spl Delta/ that can be beneficial for low-cost high-performance single-channel links. It is demonstrated that properly designed reduced core fibers can achieve theoretical DMDs in the range of 0.005-0.02 ns/km. The bend loss properties of redesigned fibers are investigated in detail, showing that the proposed modifications do not lead to significant degradation of bend loss performance. Moreover, they can be manufactured at considerably lower cost while utilizing commercially readily available low-cost VCSELs. Even where the theoretical limit is not achieved by practical fiber making, the reduced core size and /spl Delta/ MMF can provide higher production yield, lower cost, and higher average bandwidth.

In-line short cavity Fabry-Perot strain sensor for quasi distributed measurement utilizing standard OTDR.

This paper presents an in-line, short cavity Fabry-Perot fiber optic strain sensor. A short air cavity inside a single-mode fiber is created by the fusion splicing of appropriately micro machined fiber tips. A precise tuning of the cavity length is introduced and used for the setting of the sensor static characteristics within the quasi-linear range around a quadrature point, which significantly simplifies signal processing. Sensor insertion losses achieved by short cavity design and optimized fusion splicing proved to be below 1 dB. Low insertion loss allows for effective cascading of the proposed strain sensors into a quasi-distributed sensor array. A practical 10-point quasi-distributed strain sensor array was demonstrated in practice, where each in-line sensor was tuned to the same operating point in the static characteristics, thus allowing for simple interrogation of the sensor array by using standard telecommunication OTDR. In addition, precise tuning of the short cavity Fabry Perot sensor was applied for an effective compensation of temperature-induced strain errors and for an increase in the unambiguous measuring range, while improving the overall linearity of the sensor system.

Miniature all-fiber Fabry–Perot sensor for simultaneous measurement of pressure and temperature

This article presents a miniature, high-sensitivity, all-silica Fabry-Perot fiber-optic sensor suitable for simultaneous measurements of pressure and temperature. The proposed sensor diameter does not exceed 125 μm and consists of two low-finesse Fabry-Perot resonators created at the tip of an optical fiber. The first resonator is embodied in the form of a short air cavity positioned at the tip of the fiber. This resonator utilizes a thin silica diaphragm to achieve the sensors pressure response. The second resonator exploits the refractive index dependence of silica fiber in order to provide the proposed sensors temperature measurement function. Both resonators have substantially different lengths that permit straightforward spectrally resolved signal processing and unambiguous determination of the applied pressure and temperature.

High resolution, all-fiber, micro-machined sensor for simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature

This paper presents a highly-sensitive, miniature, all-silica, dual parameter fiber-optic Fabry-Perot sensor, which is suitable for independent measurement of the refractive index and the temperature of the fluid surrounding the sensor. The experimental sensor was produced by a micromachining process based on the selective etching of doped silica glass and a simple assembly procedure that included fiber cleaving, splicing and etching of optical fibers. The presented sensor also allows for direct compensation of the temperatures effect on the fluids refractive index change and consequently provides opportunities for the detection of very small changes in the surrounding fluids composition. A measurement resolution of 2x10(-7) RIU was demonstrated experimentally for a component of the refractive index that is related purely to the fluids composition. This resolution was achieved under non-stabilized temperature conditions. The temperature resolution of the sensor proved to be about 10(-3) °C. These high resolution measurements were obtained by phase-tracking of characteristic components in a Fourier transform of sensors optical spectrum.

Miniature all-glass robust pressure sensor

This paper describes a newly designed all-glass miniature (Ø 125 microm) fiber-optic pressure sensor design that is appropriate for high-volume manufacturing. The fabrication process is based on the chemical etching of specially-designed silica optical fiber, and involves a low number of critical production operations. The presented sensor design can be used with either single-mode or multi-mode lead-in fiber and is compatible with various types of available signal processing techniques. A practical sensor sensitivity exceeding 1000 nm/bar was achieved experimentally, which makes this sensor suitable for low-pressure measurements. The sensor showed high mechanical stability, good quality of optical surfaces, and very high tolerance to pressure overload.

Microbend sensor structure for use in distributed and quasi-distributed sensor systems based on selective launching and filtering of the modes in graded index multimode fiber

This paper describes a novel optical fiber microbend sensor architecture which my be utilized in distributed and quasi-distributed measurement. The actual sensor element is graded index multimode fiber coupled to the measurand field through the usual microbend inducing structures. However, the feed to the sensing section is through a single-mode fiber spliced to the multimode fiber to ensure that only the lowest order spatial mode is launched. Similarly the receiver is also coupled to the sensing element through a single mode fiber. The single mode within multimode fiber propagates with minimal mode coupling with source to receiver losses of typically 0.7 dB for short sensors ranging to approximately 0.3 dB per each additional kilometer of sensing fiber. The sensitivity of this structure to microbend induced losses has been thoroughly characterized. Typically the optical power loss for a given microbend structure and force is about three to six times higher in this architecture than for conventional fully mode filled microbend sensor. The structure is also almost totally insensitive to macrobend induced losses and allows a variety of novel designs in microbend inducing structures. Additionally, spatial mode filters allow effective control over concatenation effects that are common in microbend sensors.

All-fiber, long-active-length Fabry-Perot strain sensor

This paper presents a high-sensitivity, all-silica, all-fiber Fabry-Perot strain-sensor. The proposed sensor provides a long active length, arbitrary length of Fabry-Perot cavity, and low intrinsic temperature sensitivity. The sensor was micro-machined from purposely-developed sensor-forming fiber that is etched and directly spliced to the lead-in fiber. This manufacturing process has good potential for cost-effective, high-volume production. Its measurement range of over 3000 µε, and strain-resolution better than 1 µε were demonstrated by the application of a commercial, multimode fiber-based signal processor.