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:
May. 14, 2002
Filed:
Apr. 21, 2000
Alan H Greenaway, Malvern, GB;
James G Burnett, Malvern, GB;
Andrew R Harvey, Malvern, GB;
Peter A Lloyd, Farnborough, GB;
Roy McBride, Edinburgh, GB;
Philip St John Russell, Bath, GB;
Paul M Blanchard, Malvern, GB;
Qinetiq Limited, London, GB;
Abstract
An optical fiber bend sensor ( ) measures the degree and orientation of bending present in a sensor length ( ) portion of a fiber assembly ( ). Within a multicored fiber ( ), cores ( ) are grouped in non-coplanar pairs. An arrangement of optical elements ( ) define within each core pair ( ) two optical paths ( ) which differ along the sensor length ( ): one core ( ) of a pair ( ) is included in the first path ( ), and the other core ( ) in the second path ( ). A general bending of the sensor region ( ) will lengthen one core ( ) with respect to the other. Interrogation of this length differential by means of interferometry generates interferograms from which the degree of bending in the plane of the core pair is extracted. Bend orientation can be deduced from data extracted from multiple core pairs.