Abstract
A metrological assessment of grating-based optical fiber sensors is proposed with the aim of providing an objective evaluation of the performance of this sensor category. Attention was focused on the most common parameters, used to describe the performance of both optical refractometers and biosensors, which encompassed sensitivity, with a distinction between volume or bulk sensitivity and surface sensitivity, resolution, response time, limit of detection, specificity (or selectivity), reusability (or regenerability) and some other parameters of generic interest, such as measurement uncertainty, accuracy, precision, stability, drift, repeatability and reproducibility. Clearly, the concepts discussed here can also be applied to any resonance-based sensor, thus providing the basis for an easier and direct performance comparison of a great number of sensors published in the literature up to now. In addition, common mistakes present in the literature made for the evaluation of sensor performance are highlighted, and lastly a uniform performance assessment is discussed and provided. Finally, some design strategies will be proposed to develop a grating-based optical fiber sensing scheme with improved performance.
Highlights
During the past twenty years but especially in the last ten, optical fiber grating (OFG) sensors have achieved wide interest both in fundamental research and for several industrial applications.In the last ten years, the number of publications in the field has reached almost 20,000, testifying the continuous growth and development of optical technology platforms based on OFGs.These kinds of sensors have clearly their own advantages and drawbacks
Response Time, expressed in seconds or in minutes, which can be derived from the sensorgram for each concentration of the target analyte as well as from the binding kinetics; Limit of Detection (LOD), expressed in terms of concentration C (g·L−1 or M), which can be obtained from the calibration curve, as fully discussed in Section 3.3.2; Specificity, which can be tested by using a complex matrix or by performing a negative control during the assay implementation, as discussed in Section 3.3.3; Reusability, expressed in terms of percentage, which can be evaluated by performing at least three cycles of regeneration tests with the same sensor, as shown in Section 3.3.4; Surface Sensitivity, expressed as the refractive index (RI) change divided by the surface density concentration of the target analyte
In view of the increasing number of communities related to optical fiber sensors, especially those based on a resonant attenuation band both in the visible region and in the infrared one, the aim of the proposed work was to provide the Research and Industrial
Summary
During the past twenty years but especially in the last ten, optical fiber grating (OFG) sensors have achieved wide interest both in fundamental research and for several industrial applications. [2], when someone wants to deal with the minimum RI change discernible from the noise that the sensor is able to measure, they should talk about sensor resolution in order to avoid an inexact usage of LOD They highlighted the influence of thermal fluctuations on sensor performance and the importance of their both having a good fitting procedure in order to reliably evaluate the resonance shift and to increase the number of measurements so as to reduce the noise contribution. Focused on the LOD evaluation for chemical and biochemical sensors, and reported the results obtained by comparing three different approaches for determining the detection limit: (i) an analysis of the standard deviations at low concentration; (ii) an evaluation of the instrumental resolution limit and (iii) an examination of the calibration curve They concluded that the most appropriate way to evaluate the LOD is not to involve the sensor sensitivity and resolution, which in any case are two other important parameters.
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