Micro Fiber Optical Sensor Interrogation Systems for Aerospace Applications

The emerging field of microsystems technology is enabling the innovative development of a micro optical fiber interrogation system for potential integration into air platforms structural health monitoring and management capabilities. Our efforts in such development is based on micron size optical waveguides using arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) based demultiplexer for highly multiplexed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor arrays. In this document, a proposed system concept, its operating principle and proposed interrogation methodology are presented. Initial results demonstrate the ability of the system to obtain measurement resolution of 1 pm or better (equivalent to 0.1°C for temperature sensing) and response time as short as two milli-second. Owing to the small size and ruggedness of AWG, it is potentially feasible to fabricate an all solid state (no moving parts), palm size, robust and high-resolution interrogation system that responds to air platform requirements.