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:
Dec. 26, 1989
Filed:
Aug. 18, 1988
Alan D Kersey, Springfield, VA (US);
Anthony Dandridge, Alexandria, VA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
A new serial interferometric fiber-optic sensor array configuration is diosed. In a preferred embodiment of the invention pulsed light from a laser source is transmitted into a long input fiber which forms a series of N sensor elements, each of optical path length L. Each sensor element is responsive to any change in an associated predetermined physical parameter for changing its optical path length. A small portion of the optical power in the input fiber is tapped-off to a long output fiber at tap points between adjacent sensor elements and at tap points before the first and after the last sensor elements in order to produce at the output of the last sensor element a series of N+1 pulses separated in the time domain. This series of N+1 pulses from the output of the last sensor element is applied to each of two paths in a compensating interferometer of optical path imbalance L. The compensating interferometer coherently mixes pulses obtained from each adjacent pair of tap points to obtain a series of interferometric signals respectively indicative of any change in the physical parameters to which the sensor elements are respectively responsive.