What are the Different Types of Fiber Optic Sensors?

The optical fiber or fiber optic sensors, as well as fiber optic sensors, use a sensing element. These sensors are used to measure many parameters, including temperature, pressure, vibrations, displacements, rotations, and chemical species concentration. Because they require no electrical power at the remote location and are so small, fibers have a wide range of applications in the field of remote sensing. Below mentioned are the different types of fiber optic sensor

Extrinsic Type Fiber Optic Sensors

With fiber optic sensors of the extrinsic type, the fiber may serve as a means of transporting information to a black box. Depending on the information received at the black box, it produces a light signal. Mirrors, gas, or any other processes that produce an optical signal may be used to create the black box. Rotation, vibration velocity, displacement, twisting, torque, and acceleration are all measured with these sensors. The capacity of these sensors to access locations that would otherwise be inaccessible is their main advantage.

Intensity-Based Fiber Optic Sensor

More light is needed for intensity-based fiber optic sensors, and these sensors employ multi-mode, big-core fibers. The illustration gives a general sense of how the light intensity functions as a sensing parameter and how this configuration causes the fiber to function as a vibration sensor. The intelligence for measuring the vibration amplitude will be created when there is a vibration because there will be a change in the light injected from one end to the other end.

Intrinsic Type Fiber Optic Sensors

Sensing occurs inside the fiber itself in this sort of sensor. The ability of the sensors to translate an environmental action into a change of the light beam flowing through them depends on the characteristics of the optical fiber itself. In this case, the frequency, phase, polarisation, or intensity of the light signal might be considered one of its physical qualities. The ability of an intrinsic fiber optic sensor to deliver distributed sensing across great distances is its most advantageous characteristic.

Polarization-Based Fiber Optic Sensor

For a certain class of sensors, optical fibers based on polarisation are crucial. These kinds of sensors can be used to measure a variety of characteristics because this property is easily altered by a number of external influences. Exact polarisation properties have been developed into special fibers and other components. They are typically employed in several measuring, communication, and signal-processing applications.

Phase-Based Fiber Optic Sensor

When an information signal is being viewed by a phase-based fiber optic sensor, these kinds of sensors are used to modify the emitter light on the transmission. A light beam breaks into two beams when it passes via the interferometer. In this scenario, one beam is exposed to the sensing environment while the other is insulated from it and is utilized as a reference. As the two split beams are brought back together, they interfere with one another.

Chemical Fiber Sensor

A chemical fiber optic sensor is a tool that transforms chemical data into a quantifiable physical signal linked to the concentration of a particular chemical species. The chemical sensor is a crucial part of an analyzer and might have some components that handle signal processing, sampling, and data processing. An analyzer could play a significant role in an automated system.

Physical Fiber Sensor

A gadget constructed in accordance with physical effect and nature is known as a physical fiber optic sensor. These sensors are utilized to deliver information about the physical property of the system. Sensors like photoelectric sensors, piezoelectric sensors, metal resistance strain sensors, and semiconductor piezo-resistive sensors are the most common examples of this type of sensor.

Bio-Medical Fiber Sensor

An electronic device called a biomedical fiber optic sensor converts various non-electrical quantities in the biomedical fields into detectable electrical values. These sensors are used in health care analysis for this reason. The key to gathering data on human pathology and physiology is this sensing technology.
Final Words:
Hence, the above-mentioned are the different types of fiber optic sensor. For insensitive situations, such as noise, excessive vibration, intense heat, wetness, and unstable settings, fiber optic sensors are superior. These sensors can readily fit in small spaces and can be positioned precisely wherever flexible fibers are needed.
With the aid of an instrument called optical frequency-domain reflectrometry, the wavelength shift can be determined. A tool like an optical time-domain reflectometer can be used to determine the time delay of the fiber optic sensors. Instead of conventional sensors, fiber optic sensors now have more excellent capabilities.