Carbon Fiber Tow Inspection Technique Using Software Defined Radios

Inline inspection of carbon fiber tow is desired to enable rapid feedback to key fabrication process parameters. The tow is delicate in that it necessitates wireless techniques to remotely probe the tow properties to avoid damage during production. In this article, we investigate the use of software defined radios (SDRs) to measure microwave signal attenuation through the tow. Carbon fiber samples that have undergone different process conditions are measured with the system, and measurements exhibit over 10 dB in variation based on the process conditions. These measurements are correlated against results from conventional physical analysis. The developed system and measurement technique show promise as a method to wirelessly inspect carbon fiber tow using SDR.