Multiple fiber Bragg grating sensor network with a rapid response and wide spectral dynamic range using code division multiple access

Abstract

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor networks have been intensively researched in optical sensor area and it developed in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and time division multiplexing (TDM) technologies which was adopted for its interrogating many optical sensors. In particular, WDM technology can be easily employed to interrogate FBG sensor however, the number of FBG sensors is limited. On the other hand, the TDM technique can extremely expand the number of sensor because the FBG sensors have same center wavelength. However, it suffers from a reduced sensor output power due to low reflectivity of FBG sensor. In this paper, we proposed and demonstrated the FBG sensor network based on code division multiple access (CDMA) with a rapid response and wide spectral dynamic range. The reflected semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) as a light source was directly modulated by the generated pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) code and the modulated signal is amplified and goes through FBG sensors via circulator. When the modulated optical signal experienced FBG sensor array, the optical signal which was consistent with center wavelength of FBGs is reflected and added from each sensors. The added signal goes into dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) as a dispersion medium. After through the DCF, the optical signal is converted into electrical signal by using photodetector (PD). For separate individual reflected sensor signal, the sliding correlation method was used. The proposed method improves the code interference and it also has advantages such as a large number of sensors, continuously measuring individual sensors, and decreasing the complexity of the sensor network.