The design and fabrication of a miniature fiber Fabry–Perot pressure sensor with a diameter of $125\mu \mathrm{m}$ are presented. The essential element in the process is a thin ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2$ diaphragm that is fusion spliced at the hollow end of an optical fiber. Good repeatability and high sensitivity of the sensor are achieved by on-line tuning of the diaphragm thickness during the sensor fabrication process. Various sensor prototypes were fabricated, demonstrating pressure ranges of from 0 to 40 kPa to 0 to 1 MPa. The maximum achieved sensitivity was $1.1\mathrm{rad}∕40\mathrm{kPa}$ at 1550 nm, and a pressure resolution of 300 Pa was demonstrated in practice. The presented design and fabrication technique offers a means of simple and low-cost disposable pressure sensor production.

Optical measurement of mechanical parameters is gaining significant commercial interest in different industry sectors. Torsion, twist and rotation are among the very frequently measured mechanical parameters. Recently, twist/torsion/rotation sensors have become a topic of intense fiber-optic sensor research. Various sensing concepts have been reported. Many of those have different properties and performances, and many of them still need to be proven in out-of-the laboratory use. This paper provides an overview of basic approaches and a review of current state-of-the-art in fiber optic sensors for measurements of torsion, twist and/or rotation. Invited Paper

This paper presents a highly-sensitive, miniature, all-silica, dual parameter fiber-optic Fabry-Perot sensor, which is suitable for independent measurement of the refractive index and the temperature of the fluid surrounding the sensor. The experimental sensor was produced by a micromachining process based on the selective etching of doped silica glass and a simple assembly procedure that included fiber cleaving, splicing and etching of optical fibers. The presented sensor also allows for direct compensation of the temperature’s effect on the fluid’s refractive index change and consequently provides opportunities for the detection of very small changes in the surrounding fluid’s composition. A measurement resolution of 2x10⁻⁷ RIU was demonstrated experimentally for a component of the refractive index that is related purely to the fluid’s composition. This resolution was achieved under non-stabilized temperature conditions. The temperature resolution of the sensor proved to be about 10⁻³ °C. These high resolution measurements were obtained by phase-tracking of characteristic components in a Fourier transform of sensor’s optical spectrum.

This paper presents a high-sensitivity, all-silica, all-fiber Fabry-Perot strain-sensor. The proposed sensor provides a long active length, arbitrary length of Fabry-Perot cavity, and low intrinsic temperature sensitivity. The sensor was micro-machined from purposely-developed sensor-forming fiber that is etched and directly spliced to the lead-in fiber. This manufacturing process has good potential for cost-effective, high-volume production. Its measurement range of over 3000 µε, and strain-resolution better than 1 µε were demonstrated by the application of a commercial, multimode fiber-based signal processor.

This paper describes a newly designed all-glass miniature (Ø 125 μm) fiber-optic pressure sensor design that is appropriate for high-volume manufacturing. The fabrication process is based on the chemical etching of specially-designed silica optical fiber, and involves a low number of critical production operations. The presented sensor design can be used with either single-mode or multi-mode lead-in fiber and is compatible with various types of available signal processing techniques. A practical sensor sensitivity exceeding 1000 nm/bar was achieved experimentally, which makes this sensor suitable for low-pressure measurements. The sensor showed high mechanical stability, good quality of optical surfaces, and very high tolerance to pressure overload.

This paper presents a micro-machined, high-resolution refractive index sensor suitable for monitoring of small changes in the composition of gases. Experimentally demonstrated measurement resolution, induced by gas composition variation, proved to be in the range of 5x10-9 of a Refractive Index Unit (RIU). The proposed all-silica, all-fiber sensor consists of an open-path Fabry-Perot micro-cavity that includes an in-fiber collimation and temperature-sensing segment. It is shown that a sensor’s resolution depends strongly on the signal interrogator’s properties and that, for a given interrogator, there is an optimum Fabry-Perot cavity length that yields the highest system resolution. Furthermore, high-resolution pressure and in situ temperature compositions of measurement results are required to obtain an unambiguous correlation between the gas composition and measured Refractive Index within the presented resolution range.