INTEGRATED FIBER OPTICS/PHOTONICS SYSTEM FOR NETTED SENSOR SYSTEMS

FOSTER-MILLER PROPOSES THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN EFFICIENT PASSIVE MULTIPLEXING SCHEME FOR SCALE FIBER OPTIC SENSOR SYSTEMS. THIS SYSTEM WILL BE CAPABLE OF COLLECTING THE DATA FROM A LARGE NUMBER OF DIVERSE FIBER OPTIC SENSORS, TELEMETERING THE DATA USING EMI-FREE FIBER CABLE, AND PRESENTING THE DATA FOR COMPUTER ANALYSIS AND GRAPHICAL DISPLAY. IN PHASE I, FOSTER-MILLER WILL INVESTIGATE A MULTIPLEXING APPROACH SUITABLE FOR FIBER OPTIC SENSOR SYSTEMS THAT REQUIRES NO ELECTRICAL POWER AT THE SENSOR LOCATIONS AND YET ALLOWS THE SIGNALS FROM MANY SENSORS TO BE CARRIED ON A SINGLE FIBER. THE INHERENTLY PASSIVE NATURE OF THE FOSTER-MILLER APPROACH IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, SINCE THE REQUIREMENT OF ELECTRICAL POWER AT OPTICAL SENSOR LOCATIONS NEGATES MOST OF THE ADVANTAGES OF FIBER OPTIC SENSING AND TRANSMISSION AND IMPOSES AN IMPOSSIBLE POWER AND HEATING BURDEN FOR LARGE SYSTEMS. THIS PASSIVE MULTIPLEXING APPROACH BORROWS HEAVILY FROM RADAR TECHNOLOGY, USING SHORT PULSES OR ENCODED WAVEFORMS FROM A CENTRALIZED LASER TRANSMITTER TO INTERROGATE THE STATUS OF THE FIBER OPTIC SENSOR SYSTEM. TDM, FDM, AND PULSE COMPRESSION TECHNIQUES WILL BE STUDIED AND AN OPTIMUM ALGORITHM FOR THE DESIGN OF A LARGE-SCALE SENSOR SYSTEM TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN PHASE II WILL BE DEVELOPED. DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE-SCALE INTEGRATED FIBER OPTIC SENSOR SYSTEMS WILL GREATLY EXTEND THE USEFULNESS AND POTENTIAL OF EXISTING FIBER OPTIC SENSORS TO MANY ADDITIONAL AREAS INCLUDING AVIONIC SYSTEMS, INDUSTRIAL PROCESSING PLANTS, ADVANCED WEAPONS SYSTEMS, SMART BUILDINGS, AND OTHER APPLICATIONS.