How do Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors work
There are a couple of fibre optic temperature sensor types basically, widely used with fibre optic broadband networks today. They are the intensity modulated and phase modulated temperature sensors. Both these versions measure the temperature in fibre optic broadband networks meticulously.
To be preciser, the working pattern of intensity modulated temperature sensors points to causing a change in the received light via the optical fibre by means of an induced physical disturbance. On the other hand, the working pattern of phase modulated temperature sensors refers to a comparison made between the sensing fibre’s phase of light using a reference fibre in an interferometer.
Phase modulated temperature sensors are generally deemed as the better choice in terms of accuracy in measuring temperature. However, such sensors are found to be highly expensive owing to the advanced electronics required to process the interferometer data.
Fibre optic temperature sensors are further classified into intrinsic or extrinsic types. An extrinsic fibre optic sensor lets its fibre transport light simply from or to the sensing element, while with an intrinsic sensor the element is sensed by the fibre itself, where the fibre being affected by the measurand directly.
These temperature sensors hold some major advantages compared with other varieties of fibre optic temperature sensors. The major ones being the possibility to measure temperature in hostile conditions marked by chemicals, heat etc, and their relatively high sensitivity.
