Optical fiber ultrasonic sensor networks based on WDM and TDM

An optical fiber sensor network for ultrasonic measurement based on wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and time division multiplexing (TDM) technology is presented. Each of the sensor probes is an optical fiber extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer (EFPI) which is composed of the fiber’s end face and the aluminum thin diaphragm. The sensors are arranged in different wavelength domains formed by a wavelength division multiplexer. Each wavelength division multiplexer, with a group of the sensors, is connected to one of the output ports of optical switch to realize TDM. The signal of each sensor is exported sequentially from a tunable narrowband optical filter (TNOF) that queries every sensor though scanning mode. The principle of the phenomenon of phase induced signal fade in interferometric fiber-optic sensors is also analyzed. Nicely, the detection method above implements the operation of anti-phase induced signal fade detection. The system is interrogated by broadband light source. The scanning range of TNOF is full of the bandwidth of the light source. The result of experiment in water show that the sensor sensitivity reaches -162dB(0dB=1rad/μPa), the frequency response range is from 10KHz to 5 MHz. The number of multiplexing sensors based on WDM and TDM reaches to 64.