The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 09, 2025
Filed:
Dec. 14, 2021
Optasense Holdings Limited, Farnborough, GB;
Roger Crickmore, Farnborough, GB;
Optasense Holdings Limited, Camberley, GB;
Abstract
This application relates to distributed fibre optic sensing. A sensor apparatus includes an interrogator for repeatedly interrogating a sensing optical fibre with interrogating optical radiation and detecting radiation which is Rayleigh backscattered from within the sensing fibre. In a first, polarisation sensing mode of operation, the interrogator is optically coupled to the sensing fibre via an optical system that includes a length of optical fibre upstream of a polariser and the interrogator is configured to output coherent optical radiation with an optical power such that the interrogating radiation experiences non-linear effects when propagating in the length of optical fibre, so as to reduce coherence of the interrogating radiation. In the first mode, the interrogator determines the extent of any variation in polarisation of the backscatter radiation. The apparatus may also be operable in a second, coherent sensing mode in which the interrogator outputs optical radiation below a non-linear threshold.