An interrogator for optical fibre sensing analyses changes in temperature and/or strain from data sent from sensors. In this device, a spectrometer, a key component for signal analysis, is used for measuring the spectrum of light.
Previously, optical fibre sensing was performed only by devices equipped with an expensive spectrometer with a sub-nanometer scale high resolution due to a theoretical limit of the resolution of the sensor.
As a result of the Osaka work, the team says it performed optical fibre temperature sensing on the sub-nanometer scale with less-expensive spectrometers - a challenge in expanding optical fibre sensing technology. This market expected to reach over $300million in the next few years.
“Use of this technology will allow for high-speed, real-time optical fibre temperature sensing at performance levels typical in conventional devices at a low price,” comments lead author Tsuyoshi Konishi. “This will promote applications of this technology in a wide range of fields, including temperature sensing and strain sensing, which have attracted attention as IoT technologies.”
