Abstract
A high-sensitivity fiber Bragg grating (FBG) force sensor based on direct optical power measurement is presented. The approach utilizes a novel structure where the FBG is mounted on a thin tube-like fixture spirally. Contact force measurement is achieved through direct measurement of the FBG reflection power at a single wavelength using a power meter. The measuring system in our approach is simple and does not require processing of massive amount of spectral data, enabling real-time contact force monitoring. When force is applied to the FBG sensor, the unique spiral structure leads to FBG chirping and reflection spectrum broadening. A proportional relationship and linear fit are found between the force applied (up to 1.55 N) and the optical power reflected by the proposed FBG sensor. An average sensitivity of 11.16 dB/N is experimentally achieved. This design significantly reduces system complexity and improves data processing speed, which has great practical value in real-time FBG sensing applications.
Highlights
Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based sensor has been well studied and widely used in different applications due to its unique advantages such as small size, robustness and immunity to electromagnetic interference [1]
A high-sensitivity fiber Bragg grating (FBG) force sensor based on direct optical power measurement is presented
The approach utilizes a novel structure where the FBG is mounted on a thin tube-like fixture spirally
Summary
Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based sensor has been well studied and widely used in different applications due to its unique advantages such as small size, robustness and immunity to electromagnetic interference [1]. Charge-coupled device (CCD) array based interrogation systems are reported for the peak measurement and can be as fast as 1000 measurements per second [4], but expensive high-resolution CCD and signal processing algorithm are required These conventional systems are not suitable for real-time low-cost applications and simplifying the entire FBG sensing system has great practical value. Due to the direct relationship between the measured optical power and the applied force, there is no need to go through complicated process for determining the amount of peak wavelength shift and converting it back to the amount of force applied, enabling real-time measurement and a simple measuring system This design has been tested as an electromagnetic immune magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-conditional contact force catheter sensor in electrophysiological (EP) therapy [12], and can be used in various types of real-time high precision sensing applications. Instead of fixing the sensor on a catheter, the tiny FBG can be directly fixed on any cylindrical tube-like fixture for force measurement, which is well suited for minimally applications
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