Out-of-fluid sensor

Abstract

A sensor having a beam emitter that emits a first beam comprising laser, a spectrometer and an array detector, wherein the first beam is to strike a fluid that produces a second beam comprising a Raman signal and the array detector comprises a plurality of detectors, further wherein the sensor is capable of detecting the presence or absence of the fluid in a given space without contacting the fluid is disclosed. The sensor could be used for spectroscopic detection of a fluid by generating a first beam comprising laser, striking the first beam to the fluid to produce a second beam having a Raman signal, passing the second beam through a spectrometer and analyzing the Raman signal of the second beam to the detect the presence or absence of the fluid. The uses of the sensor include detecting of fuel in a pipeline during midair refueling.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.