Single Wafer Fabrication Process for Wavelength Dependent Reflectance for Linear Optical Serialization of Accelerometers
Background: Fiber optic sensors (FOS) networks are an attractive approach for the pervasive monitoring of a wide variety of systems. FOS operate through the modulation of a light beam signal carried by an optical fiber by environmental effects in terms of its intensity, phase, frequency, polarization, spectral content, or some combination there of. It is widely reported that FOS have the advantages of being small and lightweight, immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI), passive, low power, have a wide signal bandwidth, and can be made environmentally rugged. They have been shown to be able to accurately sense many measurands including displacement, position (linear and angular), vibration, bending and torsion, acceleration, current, voltage, pressure, acoustic waves, temperature, strain and a wide variety of chemicals and biological substances. Systems based on FOS can range over 1m to 100s of km with little change in architecture due to signal propagation range available to fiber optics. The versatility and scalability of such systems have seen their practical deployment in a variety of applications. Such properties are essential for monitoring highly distributed, constructed infrastructure and for military or peace keeping operations. In addition, the possibility of integrated physical monitoring of communications infrastructure has homeland security and commercial implications. Technology: University researchers have developed a technology for robust and low maintenance sensor networks capable of detecting micro-g accelerations in a wide frequency bandwidth (above 1,000 Hz). Sensor networks with such performance are critical for navigation, seismology, acoustic sensing, and for the health monitoring of civil structures. The approach is based on the fabrication of an array of highly sensitive accelerometers, each using a Fabry-Perot cavity with transparent passbands at specific wavelengths that allows for embedded optical detection and serialization. A unique feature of this approach is that no local power source is required for each individual sensor. Instead one global light source is used, providing an optical input signal which propagates through an optical fiber network from sensor to sensor. The information from each sensor is embedded into the transmitted light as a wavelength division multiplexed signal. Application: Proposed uses include acceleration sensing at multiple points over a distributed area, including, but not limited to, large system or vehicle monitoring, structural health monitoring, tactical or border monitoring.Type of Offer: Licensing
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