Tag: fiber Bragg gratings

It is highly essential to have accurate spatial information of a medical device inside the patient for proper manipulation of the instrument. The thing is that a wide range of clinical applications requires spatial information. Nevertheless, each technique has its disadvantages, the promising solution is the application of fiber optic sensors in the catheter for its spatial information.

Fiber sensors are applied in various medical devices such as endoscopes and catheters. Such features as compact size, flexibility, lightweight, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and compatibility with medical imaging modalities make fiber optic sensors ideal for the medical environment. Therefore, FBG sensors are used in different studies to offer feedback from medical tools, they allow monitoring of muscle fatigue, cardiac activities, and body temperature.

Moreover, the application of fiber optic sensors also includes cardiovascular diagnosis, artery pressure detection, artery detection, intra-aortic balloon pumping, prostatic implants, and urology. For instance, FBG sensors are employed as force sensors to determine the interface between various tissues in order to help in precisely installing a catheter in the epidural space. 

Additionally, sensors based on FBG multicore fibers are used in numerous different shape sensing applications. “They have been used for 3D shape recognition of solid objects, shape recognition of flexible morphine wing, and curvature detection of a continuum manipulator.” Nowadays the studies describe the application of FBG sensors in single-core optical fiber but there are also FBG multicore fibers.

To be more precise, FBG multicore fibers can work as a curvature sensor and 3D shape sensors. Although their cost is higher than in single-core optical fibers, the cross-sectional area of the shape sensor with FBG multicore fibers is smaller than the shape sensor with single-core fibers. Herewith, certain devices require the use of FBG multicore fibers because of the limited space. Also, the cores of multicore optical fibers are mechanically coupled, and the relative distance between the cores remains constant, while they experience identical temperature. Such features of FBG multicore fibers make them more beneficial than single-core optical fibers.

Finally, fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBG) written on multicore optical fibers are applied as shape sensors for flexible devices. Several FBG multicore fibers have been uniquely tested as a shape sensor for a catheter. More particularly, 4 multicore optical fibers are applied despite a single multicore fiber with 3 or more cores that have FBG sensors is enough for reconstructing the shape of a flexible device. Several multicore optical fibers expand the reliability of the sensing system against individual FBG sensor failure.

Optromix is a manufacturer of innovative fiber optic products for the global market. The company provides the most technologically advanced fiber optic solutions for the clients. Optromix produces a wide range of fiber optic devices, including cutting-edge customized fiber optic Bragg grating product line and fiber Bragg grating sensor systems. Moreover, Optromix is a top choice among the manufacturers of fiber Bragg grating monitoring systems. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@optromix.com

Tunnel fires are not regarded as usual, however, they also can perform great damage to lives and properties if they take place. The process of fire detection inside the lengthy and curved tunnel is challenging. Nevertheless, fiber optic sensors based on fiber Bragg grating or FBG technology allows detecting tunnel fires and FBG sensors are considered to be a novel methodology that determines not only the presence but also locates the fire inside the tunnel.

To be more precise, FBG sensors are installed across the inner sides of the tunnel where they control it by the optical spectrum analyzer or wavelength division multiplexing sensor interrogator at the exit. “The change in the center wavelength from the original spectrum at the output denotes the temperature change (fire occurrence) inside the tunnel.” FBG fiber optic sensors offer output with more precision, herewith, fiber Bragg gratings can hold very high-temperature values.

It should be noted that it is possible to detect fires applying various ways, for instance, installing temperature sensors inside the tunnel or controlling the tunnel through the camera. Temperature sensors enable to sense of tunnel fires but their location presents difficulties. Moreover, such a temperature sensor as a thermistor can not stand very high temperatures (1000˚C) as well as there is a problem of self-healing.

FBG sensors, in their turn, provide a highly efficient process of sensing and locating. The thing is that fiber Bragg gratings in fiber optic sensors lead to a narrow range of wavelengths to shift and the rest of it to transmit through it. The center of the reflected wavelength is Bragg’s Wavelength. The features of FBG sensors allow measuring temperature or strain changes in the structures. Additionally, FBG fiber optic sensors have a greater temperature steadiness ability, more immune to electromagnetic interferences, longer lifetime, explosion safe and it is possible to be multiplexed.

Fiber Bragg grating is a short part of optical fibers that reflects a specific light wavelength and transmits all other wavelengths. FBGs operate as an optical notch filter. The operating principle is based on the Bragg grating patterns inside the fiber that perform the reflection. The design of fiber Bragg gratings includes holographic interference or a phase mask to undergo a short length of optical fiber to a periodic distribution of light intensity. 

The developed FBG sensors have been already tested and demonstrated the following results: the sensitivity value of the fiber optic sensor achieves 20 pm/˚C. Also, it is possible to increase the accuracy of fire location inside the tunnel by increasing the number of FBG fiber optic sensors for the considered tunnel length of 4 km. Thus, FBG technology can help to perform operations very fast and can save many lives and properties.

Optromix is a manufacturer of innovative fiber optic products for the global market. The company provides the most technologically advanced fiber optic solutions for the clients. Optromix produces a wide range of fiber optic devices, including cutting-edge customized fiber optic Bragg grating product line and fiber Bragg grating sensor systems. Moreover, Optromix is a top choice among the manufacturers of fiber Bragg grating monitoring systems. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@optromix.com

An electrical engineer from the Netherlands has developed a fiber optic sensor based on fiber Bragg grating technology (FBG)with a super-precision of less than the size of an atom. Such FBG sensors favor the production of smaller chips, which in turn are required to develop faster computers.

The developed fiber sensor allows measuring deformations less than the width of an atom is possible to be measured. Thus, these fiber optic sensors offer a highly promising application that enables to improve the accuracy of current machines. It should be noted that even the slightest deformation of the wafers in machines may result in serious problems.

“These wafers are actually quite stiff, but because they are moved about at such great speed, they are subject to g-forces that slightly deform them. Measuring this deformation by FBG sensors gives the opportunity to compensate for it in some or other way, and opens up the possibility of producing even smaller chips.”

This is the main reason why the engineer began developing a fiber sensor based on FBG technology, enabling sensing these deformations of roughly one nanometer per meter. The operating principle of this extremely precise FBG sensor is that it is possible to measure the deviations in the frequency of laser beam light with high precision, as well as the principle used by fiber Bragg grating – an optical fiber of sorts treated in such a way that it becomes opaque for a very specific color of light.

Herewith, such a resonance frequency is dependant on the extent to which the optical fiber is stretched. Therefore, fiber Bragg gratings can be employed here to the moving parts as a way to measure the wafer’s deformation. The fiber optic sensing system based on FBG technology has been already tested in the lab. Although modern machines require dozens of such fiber sensors, it is not a challenge because FBG sensors are not expensive and light-weight.

The engineer claims that it succeeded in achieving the accuracy of 5 nanometers per meter, thus, the fiber optic sensor of a few centimeters in length allows measuring the deformation of a couple of dozen picometers, herein, that is less than the diameter of an atom. Nevertheless, several challenges have to be overcome before this incredible level of precision could be reached due to fiber Bragg gratings.

The first challenge is a need for sophisticated stabilization techniques to provide that the laser beam light has the right frequency. However, the main problem is considered to be the resonance frequency of the FBG sensor that depends on not only the deformation but also the temperature. 

Optromix is a manufacturer of innovative fiber optic products for the global market. The company provides the most technologically advanced fiber optic solutions for the clients. Optromix produces a wide range of fiber optic devices, including cutting-edge customized fiber optic Bragg grating product line and fiber Bragg grating sensor systems. Moreover, Optromix is a top choice among the manufacturers of fiber Bragg grating monitoring systems. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@optromix.com

A team of researchers from the U.S. continues developing a fiber optic sensor based on fiber Bragg grating or FBG technology that helps to study tissue growth in the lab. The operating principle of the FBG sensor is based on a light-based signal to measure pH that is considered to be a highly important quality in cell-growth studies.

It should be noted that compared to traditional sensing systems, it is possible to use the fiber sensor to control the environment in cell culture for weeks at a time without the necessity to bother the cell-growth environment. For several years, the researchers have designed photonic sensors that apply optical fibers etched with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG). Temperature or pressure changes lead to transform the wavelengths that are able to get through the fiber Bragg grating.

Such a sensing system has been already tested and shows that fiber sensors with Bragg gratings can be easily adapted to pH measurement. The application of a fiber optic-based platform featuring FBGs promotes the development of a fiber optic sensor that “measures the heat released by pH-sensitive chromophores upon absorption of light”.

Thus, due to this fiber sensing system, the researchers have succeeded to compare visible light absorption by the chromophores to the heat released and changes in the fiber Bragg grating signal over a pH range of 2.5 to 10. To be more precise, firstly, the team fills a petri dish with a solution made with red cabbage juice powder that transforms color in response to changes in pH.  Then the researchers put one optical fiber above the dish, connecting the optical fiber to a laser pointer, and shine the laser beam into the sample. 

Additionally, they install a second optical fiber with FBGs as the temperature sensor in the cabbage juice solution. Herewith, the team controls manually the pH levels in the solution. Shining the solution above, it absorbs the laser beam to different degrees depending on its pH level. The fiber optic sensor operates as a thermometer and detects these tiny changes in the juice’s heat.

A second color into the solution added by the researchers demonstrates that the fiber sensor offers its operation over a wide range. Moreover, further researchers show that the pH measurements by the FBG sensor are precise to plus or minus 0.13 pH units and are stable for at least three weeks.

Finally, it is planned to perform tests on “how cell cultures are affected by the slight, temporary temperature changes (about 1 to 2 kelvins) in localized areas of the sample that occur as a result of this measurement technique” by applying the developed fiber sensing system. Also, the temperature changes are required to reduce in the future as much as possible because over time the fiber sensors could be developed to control the growth of tissue in the human body

Optromix is a manufacturer of innovative fiber optic products for the global market. The company provides the most technologically advanced fiber optic solutions for the clients. Optromix produces a wide range of fiber optic devices, including cutting-edge customized fiber optic Bragg grating product line and fiber Bragg grating sensor systems. Moreover, Optromix is a top choice among the manufacturers of fiber Bragg grating monitoring systems. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@optromix.com

A new compact sensing system based on fiber Bragg grating technology has been designed to control urban traffic density up to 80 kph. The sensing technology includes a 2.5-m-long and a 2-cm-high fiber optic sensor made from a combination of silicone addition rubber and fiber Bragg grating put inside a carbon tube.

The design of the compact FBG sensors allows monitoring and detecting the traffic density and car crossing in a single lane. It should be noted that such a sensing system has been already tested in real traffic and demonstrated quite a high detection rate of 98.946% based on the control of 1518 vehicles of various types and sizes.

To be more precise, traffic sensing systems are considered to be special devices that determine input data and information for other transport infrastructure systems. It is possible to install traffic sensors next to, above, into, or onto a road’s surface. The fiber optic sensors control “the presence of a vehicle, vehicle speed, vehicle classification, wheelbase and number of axles, total vehicle weight, road axle load, and occupancy, all of which indicate the traffic flow quality”.

The thing is that sensing systems based on optical fibers provide the following benefits: robustness, precision, high sensitivity, electromagnetic and chemical resistance, electrical passivity, and a broad temperature operating range. Additionally, it is possible to use fiber optic sensors in hybrid systems. The operating principle of fiber sensors is based on transmitting and receiving a laser or infrared beam from an emitter to a receiver.

Another type of fiber optic sensor is distinguished which is a micro-motion one. Such a fiber sensor operates using the increasing of optical fiber attenuation. Herewith, these optical fibers have special protective coatings and they are installed into a roadway. Nevertheless, their application is experimental, and these fiber sensors are not employed in general practice.

Also, the DAS technology (Distributed Acoustic Sensor) can be used for the same purposes. For instance, DAS systems apply a single optical fiber to control multiple traffic parameters, such as detecting a car, its direction, its speed, etc. However, FBG sensors require proper protection in order to avoid damage to the sensors. The use of composite fiber protection to the FBG sensors enables us to successfully solve the current problem.

The high sensitivity of portable FBG sensors and success rates in determination vehicles are regarded as a good supposition for expanding research and future developments for monitoring automotive traffic. Nowadays researchers plan to improve the design of fiber sensors to provide a more stable sensitivity, as well as to expand the determination capabilities of the sensing system, and to produce the sensor for year-round application.

Optromix is a manufacturer of innovative fiber optic products for the global market. The company provides the most technologically advanced fiber optic solutions for the clients. Optromix produces a wide range of fiber optic devices, including cutting-edge customized fiber optic Bragg grating product line and fiber Bragg grating sensor systems. Moreover, Optromix is a top choice among the manufacturers of fiber Bragg grating monitoring systems. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@optromix.com

A team of researchers offers a new application of fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBG sensors) in the construction and characterization of Micro Pattern Gaseous Detector. Such a FBG sensing system includes 144 gas electron multiplier chambers of about 0.5 m2 active area each. It should be noted that FBG technology has been applied in high energy physics only for high precision positioning and re-positioning fiber sensors due to their benefits (low cost, easy installation, low space consumption). Nowadays the most common application of fiber Bragg gratings remains the use for very accurate strain measurements in material studies.

Now FBG technology is used as flatness and mechanical tensioning sensors employed to the wide GEM foils of the GE1/1 chambers. FBG sensor array allows detecting the optimal mechanical tension applied and characterizing the mechanical tension that should be applied to the foils. A new application of FBG sensors has been already tested and demonstrated great results that can determine a standard assembly procedure and possible future developments.

Fiber Bragg gratings are considered to be a type of distributed Bragg reflector, developed by a short segment of optical fiber that enables one to reflect certain wavelengths of light and transmit all others. The operating principle of FBG sensors is based on “the creation of a periodic variation in the refractive index of the fiber core, which generates a wavelength-specific dielectric mirror”. Thus, the FBG sensing system can be applied as a strain measurement device because changes in fiber Bragg gratings lead to various light frequency responses.

One more application of FBG sensors in GEM chamber construction includes the opportunity to be applied as a load gauge for accurate measurement of the tensile load employed to the foils, of the various layers, at the same moment. The thing is that this FBG application plays a crucial role in the case of the GE1/1 chambers because the foils are stretched through screwing nuts with a dynamometric screwdriver during their assembly procedure, therefore, it is necessary to know accurately how much to strain the foils to escape to stretch them too much.

The testing of fiber Bragg grating sensors consist of proper stretching of the GE1/1 GEM stack, then the researchers removed a single stretching screw from the chamber and replaced it with an eyelet screw with installed stainless steel wire applied to set various weights. Additionally, it was necessary to add weights in different steps until they applied load achieves in the fiber Bragg gratings facing the eyelet the same response as when stretching of the GEMs occurs by the traditional screw.

Finally, the technology of FBG sensors is regarded as a highly reliable glue-less technique that offers the correct tensioning of the three GEM foils. The correct tension across the GEM stack leads to uniform gaps resulting in the required performance of the detector. Moreover, FBG sensors operate successfully as load gauges for accurate detection of the used stretching force to GEM foils.

Optromix is a manufacturer of innovative fiber optic products for the global market. The company provides the most technologically advanced fiber optic solutions for the clients. Optromix produces a wide range of fiber optic devices, including cutting-edge customized fiber optic Bragg grating product line and fiber Bragg grating sensor systems. Moreover, Optromix is a top choice among the manufacturers of fiber Bragg grating monitoring systems. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@optromix.com

The opportunity to measure body temperature plays a crucial role in both physiological studies and clinical investigations. New wearable sensors based on fiber Bragg grating or FBG technology offer such an opportunity in intelligent clothing for human body temperature measurement.

The main purpose of the development is the integration of FBG sensors into functional textiles to enhance the abilities of wearable fiber optic solutions for body temperature monitoring. Thus, the FBG sensing system provides a temperature sensitivity of 150 pm/°C, which is almost 15 times higher than that of a bare fiber Bragg grating.

It should be noted that fiber Bragg grating is regarded as a type of distributed FBG reflector installed in a short segment of optical fiber that reflects particular wavelengths of light and transmits all the others. The FBG technology is used here as an inline optical filter to block specific wavelengths, or as a wavelength-specific reflector.

Additionally,  FBG sensors offer great benefit over electronic sensing systems for the use in intelligent structures, civil engineering, harsh environmental conditions, built structural health monitoring system and other. Distributed temperature sensors based on fiber Bragg gratings measure human body temperature at fiver places: left chest, right chest, left armpit, right armpit, and at the center of the upper back. Herewith, the data information provided by these FBG sensors at five places is not the same because different parts of the human body have different temperatures.

The application of distributed temperature sensors based on FBG technology allows developing a sample of intelligent clothing and testing the heat transmission mechanism from numerous aspects. A new mathematical model of heat transmission for the human skin, the air and clothing has been created. Therefore, FBG sensors provide the theoretical basis of human temperature measurement applying intelligent clothing with distributed temperature sensors and demonstrate the implementation of optical fiber grating into the clothing. 

Finally, the temperature measured by DTS systems can be useful to represent human body temperature in clinics. Nonetheless, it is planned to enlarge “research in intelligent clothing to cover the measuring and recording of real-time physiological information, such as human respiration, heartbeat, blood pressure, and other physiological signals.”

The biomedical application of wearable FBG sensors, which are non-intrusive, non-invasive, and continuously being monitored, is considered to become a highly potential monitoring and diagnostic devices. Thus, these distributed temperature sensors can determine and process physiological signals, extract signal characterization, transmit data, and have other basic options.

Optromix is a manufacturer of innovative fiber optic products for the global market. The company provides the most technologically advanced fiber optic solutions for the clients. Optromix produces a wide range of fiber optic devices, including cutting-edge customized fiber optic Bragg grating product line and fiber Bragg grating sensor systems. Moreover, Optromix is a top choice among the manufacturers of fiber Bragg grating monitoring systems. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@optromix.com

Fiber optic technology is highly promising now, in spite of the fact that fiber optic solutions found their place in numerous fields of application, the optical fiber sphere still continues developing. Thus, recently a group of researchers from the UK demonstrated a novel optical pressure-temperature gauge of compact size.

The optical gauge is considered to enlarge the fiber optic application, especially when it comes to a well surveillance area. Moreover, this optical device allows cutting all the costs and offering a new alternative to conventional downhole fiber sensors and other electronic logging tools.

Also, it should be mentioned that it is possible to combine the optical gauge with other devices, for example, with a simple deployment mechanism and distributed sensing technology, adding new properties and offering savings of 50-90% compared to traditional logging techniques.

A fiber optic gauge is a special tool that is based on fiber Bragg gratings without using electronics, external connections, or power supply equipment. Herewith, optical gauges provide the following advantages that include:

• Immunity to electromagnetic fields;
• Potential application in highly explosive environments;
• Ability to withstand high vibration loads without any mechanical failure of sensor material;
• Reduced number of connection lines and consequently, less impact on test purposes;
• Low interconnection is required because of the possibility to include numerous sensors with different fiber Bragg grating wavelengths in one optical fiber.

The novel optical gauge can be installed in the fiber optic line and used in harsh atmospheres. Moreover, this fiber optic device is able to measure up to 10,000 psi (689 bar) and 150°C (302°F), optionally enlarged to 20,000 psi (1,379 bar) and 300°C (572°F).

Herein, the size of the optical gauge is about 10 cu mm, that is why the device can be easily implemented in various optical sensors and even installed in narrow access wells to log data during descent and to capture bottom hole temperature and pressure over time.

Finally, the optical pressure-temperature gauge is able to operate several months without human control, streaming real-time, live well information along with the optical fiber back to the surface. Usually, fiber optic sensors are applied in complex surveillance systems that have a high cost, sometimes they need either batteries or electrical power as well as special equipment compared to the novel optical gauges. Nevertheless, FBG sensors remain number one in the market today due to their lightweight, simple installation and relatively low cost.

If you want to obtain a highly efficient sensing system, you should choose the Optromix company. Optromix is a manufacturer of innovative fiber optic products for the global market. The company provides the most technologically advanced fiber optic solutions for monitoring worldwide. Optromix is a fast-growing vendor of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) products line such as fiber Bragg grating sensors, FBG interrogators and multiplexers, distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) systems, distributed temperature sensing (DTS) systems. If you are interested in FBG sensors and want to learn more, please contact us at info@optromix.com