Long Weak FBG Sensor Interrogation Using Microwave Photonics Filtering Technique

A system to interrogate photonic sensors based on long weak fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) is illustrated and experimentally demonstrated. The FBG sensor is able to detect and measure the precise location of several spot events. The principle of operation is based on a technique used to analyze microwave photonics filters. The long weak FBGs are used as quasi-distributed sensors. Several events can be detected along the FBG device with a spatial accuracy of <1 mm using a modulator and a photodetector with a modest bandwidth of <500 MHz. The simple proposed scheme is intrinsically robust against environmental changes and easy to reconfigure.