Parameter design of signal processing for transmission/reflection-type hybrid extrinsic Fabry–Perot interferometric optical fiber sensors

Abstract

A transmission/reflection-type hybrid extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric (TRHEFPI) optical fiber sensor presents transmission-type and reflection-type sensor signals simultaneously, and measurement directions can be robustly distinguished with the phase lead or lag of the linear combination signal from the original sensor signal. This sensor principle compensates for the ambiguous distinction of the measurement directions and direction changes of conventional interferometric optical fiber sensors, including extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric optical fiber sensors, due to the exclusive use of fringe counting in signal processing. Designing a sensor coefficient in the linear combination signal is one of the most important works in signal processing for the TRHEFPI optical fiber sensor because the magnitude of the phase shifts depends on the sensor coefficient. A design method of the sensor coefficient is presented in this research. The method was verified with experimental sensor signals and applied to strain measurement experiments. A method of absolute measurement using the TRHEFPI optical fiber sensor is also presented.