Optical-path difference on-line measurement of multiplexing fiber-optic interferometric sensors using TDM and WDM by improved optical-frequency-domain reflectometry

Optical-path difference (OPD) is a key parameter for the fiber-optic interferometer, especially for the large-scale multiplexing of fiber-optic interferometric sensors (FOIS) array. Due to the OPD directly affects the background noise of the system and the performance consistency among different array elements. Most of the time, the latter is very critical for the FOIS array. Several methods have been adopted for the OPD measurement of the fiber-optic interferometer, including the white-light interferometry, the optical-time-domain reflectometry (OTDR), the optical-frequency-domain reflectometry (OFDR). Unfortunately, none of the methods mentioned above can directly realize OPD on-line measurement of FOIS, which is multiplexed with the time division multiplexing (TDM) and the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). In this paper, an OPD measurement method for multiplexing FOIS using TDM and WDM based on the improved OFDR has been present. The most distinguishing feature of this method is that it transformed the FOIS array under tested into a part of the OFDR system. The modulated linear sweep light directly injected into the FOIS array under tested and traversed every array element through array network. Thus every interferometer of FOIS became the interferometric structure of the improved OFDR, and the OPD measurement of complexity multiplexing FOIS array has been vastly simplified into the fiber length measurement of interferometer in proper order. Results show that the measurement accuracy of this approach can achieve millimeter level and the measurement range up to hundred meters for FOIS using TDM and WDM through a single measurement.