At the Third National Photonic Technology Forum held in Guangzhou in early 2023, Professor Wang Yiping of Shenzhen University and Shenzhen PHOTONIC SENSING Technology Co., Ltd. released the femtosecond laser automatic preparation technology, equipment and products of large-scale fiber grating sensor array for the first time in China. This technology breaks the long-standing technical barriers abroad, avoid being strangled in the field of distributed optical fiber sensing, and truly realizes the manufacturing of large-scale optical fiber grating sensor arrays in China.
Figure1: Large-scale fiber grating sensor array samples released on site
The total length of the large-scale fiber grating sensor array samples released on site this time is 10 meters, the length of each fiber grating sensor is only 0.5 mm, and the distance between grating sensors is 10 mm, totaling 1,000 fiber gratings. Large-scale fiber grating sensor array has a wide application prospect in distributed fiber sensing fields such as oil well exploration, perimeter security, bridges and dams, aerospace, etc. It can greatly improve the key indicators such as measurement accuracy, measurement distance and spatial resolution of distributed fiber sensing technologies such as DAS, DTS and OFDR, and is the "booster" of distributed fiber sensing technology.
However, this technology has been blocked and monopolized by foreign countries for a long time, which is obstacle in the field of distributed optical fiber sensing in China. After more than ten years of hard work, Professor Wang Yiping's team has finally made a breakthrough and successfully developed a femtosecond laser automatic preparation technology for large-scale fiber grating sensor arrays with independent intellectual property rights. At the press conference, this technology and related products were widely recognized and highly praised by academic and industrial counterparts in the field of optical fiber sensing.
Figure2: Professor Wang Yiping from Shenzhen University and team representatives from Shenzhen PHOTONIC SENSING Technology Co., Ltd.
The femtosecond laser automatic preparation technology of large-scale fiber grating sensor array developed by Professor Wang’s team realizes the high-efficiency automatic preparation of kilometer-level, roll-to-roll large-scale series/parallel integrated fiber grating sensor array (including weak reflection point sensor) in single-core fiber and multi-core fiber. It has the advantages of direct writing with coating layer, no mask, no hydrogen loading, no secondary coating, etc., and realizes the automatic program control of grating preparation process such as fiber movement, clamping, fiber placement, fiber retraction, core alignment, laser focusing and exposure. The fabricated fiber grating sensor array retains the original mechanical strength of fiber (tensile, compressive, bending, etc.), and has good high temperature resistance and long-term stability.
Figure3: Automatic femtosecond laser fabrication system for large-scale fiber grating array
The minimum grid length, minimum grid pitch, minimum reflectivity, maximum number of gratings, reflection wavelength difference and reflection intensity fluctuation of large-scale fiber grating sensor array prepared by femtosecond laser are less than 0.5 mm, 1mm, 100000, 10000, 1nm and 3dB respectively. Grating wavelength, grating reflectivity, grating spacing, grating number and other parameters can be customized according to the actual needs of users. The actual test shows that the reflection spectra of large-scale fiber grating sensor array have nice consistency.
Figure4: Reflection Spectra of Large Scales Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor
It is reported that Professor Wang’s team of Shenzhen University and Shenzhen PHOTONIC SENSING Technology Co., Ltd. have carried out in-depth industry-university-research cooperation in femtosecond laser automatic preparation technology of large-scale fiber grating sensor array for a long time. The large-scale fiber grating sensor array products jointly developed and produced have been supplied in batches and sold to many large-scale high-tech enterprises and research institutes in China, successfully serving the major strategic needs of the country such as aerospace, nuclear reactors, oil well exploration and marine safety, which is conducive to promoting the wider and higher-level industrial application of distributed fiber grating sensor technology.
Break through technical barriers! Large Scale Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor Array Sample Release-China.exportesem.com
