Press Releases

» TDM Fiber Sensor Interrogation Breakthrough Announced

Van Nuys, CA - November 16, 2004 – In a technical paper given at the recent SPIE Optics East Conference held in Philadelphia, PA., Optiphase, Inc. announced a breakthrough which will enable low-cost TDM interrogation of multi-channel interferometric fiber sensor arrays.

The paper, presented by Jeff Bush, President of Optiphase, Inc., outlined the work, methods and results of an on-going effort to reduce the cost of TDM interrogation of fiber sensor arrays. “This approach holds significant promise for lowering the cost of today’s distributed fiber sensing applications which is crucial for acceptance in the intrusion detection and structural monitoring markets” according to Bush.

The technology for fiber optic distributed sensing has been available for the past 15 years, but hasn't experienced significant market acceptance due to the high cost of components. Optiphase, Inc., a leader in the field, has focused on TDM designs for distributed fiber sensing technology and has been developing low-cost components for an Interrogator or controller for such systems.

The TDM interrogator utilizes a multi-channel interferometric design approach which is applied to a fiber sensor array, where each sensor reflects or returns a portion of the input light back to the receiver in a “timed” manner based on its location in the array. This approach allows for the use of low-level reflections [0.5% to 5%] with either wavelength independent reflectors or wavelength selective sensors such as Fiber Bragg Gratings.

The design is comprised of a CW laser, a new Semiconductor Optical Amplifier [SOA] pulsing technique, a newly designed all SMF compensator, an optional Er Amp, a Polarization Diversity Receiver [PDR], and a new TDM Demodulator reduced to a single circuit board utilizing Optiphase’s patented “Dual Slope” approach [U.S. Patent 6,778,720. The TDM Interrogator design has attained significant component cost reductions without degradation in performance or capacity. “With the essential building blocks to meet application requirements, we intend to apply this new technology to both small and large channel count arrays”, said Jeff Bush.

“We intend to announce several new components and system level products in 2005 as part of the commercialization of this promising new TDM technology. Among these are a new Polarization Diversity Receiver [PDR], an Optical Pulser and a TDM Interrogator system”, according to Mike Weinstock, Optiphase’s Executive Vice President.

The technical paper entitled “Low Cost Interferometric TDM Technology for Dynamic Sensing Applications” is available on the company’s web site.

Founded in 1990, Optiphase, Inc. is a leading provider of interferometric fiber optic sensor solutions for a wide range of applications in the Biomedical, Industrial, Geophysical and Security industries. The company offers a complete line of fiber-optic based Instruments and Assemblies for the scientific and technical community as well as OEM partners.

» For more information, contact:

Jeff Bush
818-782-0997 x110
jbush@optiphase.com

Mike Weinstock
818-782-0997 x122
mweinstock@optiphase.com