Fiber Optic Grating Based Moisture Sensor

Not Available The advent of single crystal piezoelectric materials is destined to have significant ramifications for the vibration instrumentation industry. Wilcoxon Research, Inc. believes, however, that one of the most promising and direct paths to commercialization is through the development of miniature, high sensitivity accelerometers. Moreover, miniature accelerometers will have overall physical dimensions in the mesoscale range, obviating the requirement of growing large diameter (> 1 cm) crystals. Wilcoxon Research, Inc. hereby proposes to demonstrate a miniature accelerometer design and prototype fabrication that makes use of piezoelectric single crystals with high electromechanical coupling. One of the major advantages of this new technology is the ability to significantly decrease the size of the sensor while maintaining the same performance when compared to conventional PZT based sensors. Due to the smaller size and unique packaging, the production cost for single crystal- based sensors has the potential of being much less than PZT sensors. Its use in embedded sensing applications, throughout the military and private sector, is expected to be widespread.