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US 2014/0152995 A1Published application
Serial weak fbg interrogator
AssigneeSentek Instrument LLC
InventorsBo DONG, Fabin Shen, Anbo Wang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A serial weak FBG interrogator is disclosed. The serial weak FBG interrogator may include a CW tunable laser or pulsed laser utilized as a laser source and an EDFA. The serial weak FBG interrogator may also be an interrogation of a single sensor system by utilization of a DFB laser which utilizes a single sensor, which may be an interferometer sensor, an extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer or a wavelength-modulated sensor. The serial weak FBG interrogator may also include a computer system or CSPU.
Claims33
A serial weak FBG interrogator, comprising:
- a CW tunable laser utilized as a laser source, an optical fiber extending from the CW tunable laser;
- an optical shutter or an electro-optic modulator, receiving the optical fiber extending from the CW tunable laser, wherein light from the laser source is launched into an optical shutter which converts the CW laser into an optical pulse;
- an optical circulator receiving the optical fiber from the optical shutter, the optical pulse passing through the optical circulator;
- a laser calibrator receiving the optical fiber from the optical circulator, the laser calibrator to generate information about the CW tunable laser output power and wavelength, the optical pulse enters into the laser calibrator and then propagates to a serial FBG array;
- a photodetector receiving an optical fiber from the optical circulator and generating an electrical connection to the A/D converter;
- an A/D converter receiving the electrical connection and converting a continuous physical quantity to a digital number that represents the quantity's amplitude;
- a computer system receiving the electrical connection from the A/D converter, the computer system having a processor and a memory system, the computer system extends the electrical connection to the CW tunable laser, the computer system is utilized to observe changes of an electrical signal over time;
- and
- a pulse driver receiving the electrical connection from the computer system, the pulse driver incorporated into the laser source to drive a pulse from the laser source.
6 more elements
A serial weak FBG interrogator, comprising:
- a pulsed laser utilized as a laser source, an optical fiber extending from the pulsed laser;
- an EDFA receiving the optical fiber extending from the pulsed laser, the EDFA is added before light is injected into an FBG array;
- an optical circulator receiving the optical fiber extending from the EDFA, the optical circulator extends the optical fiber to a laser calibrator, the laser calibrator to generate information about laser output power and wavelength;
- a photodetector receiving the optical fiber extending from the optical circulator, the photodetector extends an electric connection;
- a supplemental amplifier receiving the electric connection from the photodetector, the supplemental amplifier is to the EDFA;
- an A/D convertor receiving the electric connection from the amplifier;
- a computer system receiving the electric connection from the A/D convertor, the computer system having a processor and a memory system;
- and
- a pulse generator receiving the electric connection from the computer system, the pulse generator extends the electric connection to the pulsed laser and the pulse generator controls pulse repetition rate or frequency, pulse width, delay with respect to an internal or external trigger and high and low voltage levels of a plurality of pulses.
6 more elements
A serial weak FBG interrogator for distributed acoustic sensing or vibration sensing, comprising:
- a pulse generator generating a plurality of electrical data links;
- a CSPU receiving a first electrical data link;
- a beam combiner receiving a second electrical data link and a third electrical data link, the second electrical data link and the third electrical data link each includes a plurality of length distances, the length distances each having a corresponding light wavelength;
- an optical circulator receiving a combined first optical data link and second optical data link from the beam combiner;
- a laser calibrator receiving the combined first optical data link and second optical data link from the optical circulator, the laser calibrator including a plurality of serial FBG arrays;
- one or more photodetectors receiving the combined first optical data link and second optical data link from the optical circulator;
- and
- one or more A/D convertors receiving a third electrical data link from the photodetector, the one or more A/D convertors extending the third electrical data link from the one or more photodetector to the CSPU.
5 more elements
An interrogation of a single sensor system by utilization of a DFB laser or a VCSEL laser, comprising:
- a single sensor;
- an optical fiber extending from the single sensor;
- and
- a sensor interrogator receiving the optical fiber extending from the single sensor, the sensor interrogator includes the DFB laser, a laser driver, a microprocessor, a first photodetector, a first amplifier, an A/D converter, a second photodetector, a second amplifier and a laser calibrator.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.