A wide dynamics and fast scan interrogating method for a fiber bragg grating sensor network implemented using code division multiple access

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor network employing the code division multiple access (CDMA) technique to identify information from individual sensors. To detect information without considering time delays between sensors, a sliding correlation method is applied, in which two different signals with the same pseudo-random binary sequence (PRBS) pattern, but slightly different frequencies, are applied to the source and detector sides. Moreover, for time domain detection, a wavelength-to-time conversion technique using a wavelength dispersive medium is introduced. The experimental results show that the proposed sensor network has a wide strain dynamic range of 2,400 με and a low crosstalk of 950:1. © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.