Optical flame-sensor
AssigneeOnPoint Technologies, LLC
InventorsCharlie Callahan, Andrew Sappey, Tristan Stelzner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical flame-sensor includes an optical circulator, an optical-fiber cavity, and a first optical sensor. The optical circulator includes a first port, a second port, and a third port. The first port is configured to receive an optical signal. The second port is configured to output the optical signal received at the first port. The third port is configured to output the input to the second port. The optical-fiber cavity includes a cavity proximal-end optically coupled to the second port, and a mirror at a cavity distal-end, such that a cavity optical signal output by the optical-fiber cavity is the input to the second port. The first optical sensor is optically coupled to the third port to quantify the cavity optical signal.
Claims20
An optical flame-sensor comprising:
- an optical circulator including a first port, a second port, and a third port,
- the first port configured to receive an optical signal,
- the second port configured to output the optical signal received at the first port, and
- the third port configured to output the input to the second port;
- an optical-fiber cavity including a cavity proximal-end optically coupled to the second port, and a mirror at a cavity distal-end, such that a cavity optical signal output by the optical-fiber cavity is the input to the second port;
- and
- a first optical sensor optically coupled to the third port and configured to quantify the cavity optical signal.
An optical flame-sensor comprising:
- an optical-fiber cavity including
- a cavity proximal-end configured to optically couple to (i) a laser and (ii) an optical sensor,
- a cavity distal-end, and,
- a mirror at the cavity distal-end;
- and
- a housing configured to mount the optical-fiber cavity to a flame-sensor port of a burner.
A method for detecting presence of a flame comprising:
- periodically modulating a wavelength of an optical signal generated by a laser to produce a modulated signal;
- detecting a cavity optical signal output by an optical-fiber cavity coupled to the laser, the cavity optical signal including an amplitude modulation determined by when the wavelength of the modulated signal corresponds to a mode of the optical-fiber cavity;
- and
- determining whether the optical-fiber cavity is heating or cooling according to a time-dependence of the amplitude modulation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.