Universal fiber-optic point sensor system for quasi-static absolute measurements of multiparameters exploiting low coherence interrogation

A universal fiber-optic high-resolution point sensor system, based upon signal recovery by dual-wavelength low coherence interferometry, has been developed and demonstrated for quasistatic absolute measurements of multiparameters. This system is capable of multiplexing up to 32 fiber-optic point sensors which can be fiber optic interferometers or fiber Bragg gratings or any combination of the two, The topology of this system is based on a spatially multiplexed scheme with low coherence signal recovery that we have reported previously, A range of multiparameter point sensors, including a medium pressure sensor, a high pressure sensor, a miniature temperature sensor, a displacement sensor, and a fiber Bragg grating strain sensor with drift-compensation, have been developed and incorporated into this network and demonstrated, A range to resolution of better than 10(4):1 and 2 x 10(3):1 has been achieved for the interferometric sensors and the Bragg grating strain sensor, respectively. The interchangeability of the sensors has also been demonstrated, allowing the sensors to be replaced in the event of damage. Due to the universality of the signal interrogation, the instrument can be compatible with any interferometric point sensor which has a similar optical path difference with the transmitting interferometer or any fiber grating sensor whose normal wavelength is within the spectral range of the light source, In addition, as the total sensor number which can be multiplexed is quite large, the average cost for each sensor is reduced considerably, Therefore, this system allows optical fiber sensors to compete with conventional sensors with the additional benefits of fiber-optic sensors.