Frequency division multiplexing of etrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric (EFPI) optical fiber sensor

Abstract

As an important member of optical fiber sensor, fiber optic Extrinsic Fabry-Perot Interferometric (EFPI) sensor has prospects for a wide range of industrial applications due to its small size, compact configuration, good reliability and flexibility. In a white light based fiber optic EFPI sensor system, which has the advantages of large dynamic range and high resolution, spectral analysis equipment is the most important part which takes the major cost of the system. Therefore, multiplexing spectral analysis equipment to measure multiple sensors simultaneously is an effective and necessary way that can save the cost of the whole sensor system. In this paper, a scheme based on the frequency division multiplexing of EFPI optical fiber sensors is proposed. Two EFPI sensors with different gap lengths are parallely connected through the optical fiber coupler. The overlapped interference spectrum of the two EFPI sensors is measured by using an optical spectrum analyzer, which is separated into two individual interference spectrums with a Finite Impuse Response (FIR) band-pass filter. Their envelope components are extracted with Hilbert transform, and then the interference spectrums are normalized by the envelope components. The respective gap lengths of the two EFPI sensors are achieved with the cross correlation calculation. Using this frequency division spectral analysis method, a two-channel multiplexing EFPI sensor system is implemented in the laboratory. The deployment of this frequency division multiplexing technology can greatly reduce the cost of the whole system which has extensive potential applications for distributed fiber optic EFPI sensor system.