Enhanced Fiber Optic Sensing
Fiber optic sensing, and FBG sensing in particular - is a great sensing technology. Small, non-electric, and intrinsically immune to EMI and harsh environmental conditions - it delivers data where it is most needed.
At PerCiv, we've set the goal: to make the best FBG sensing system, coupled with a top-notch analytics suite, to enable precise predictive maintenance for critical assets.
High Speed Sampling Matters
FBG sensors have long been used for sampling slow-changing parameters such as strain, pressure, and temperature.
For vibration and acceleration measurements, FBG interrogators with higher sampling speeds of up to 40 KS/s are required, which is useful for machine condition monitoring.
But the real breakthrough lies in the ability to reach even higher sampling ranges, with up to 10 MS/s per sensor, enabling the measurement of distinctive phenomena such as acoustic emission.
This high sampling speed opens up a world of possibilities, including pinpointing the root causes of asset deterioration, detecting destructive processes in structures (Structural Health Monitoring), continuous battery monitoring, chemical reactions inspection, and detecting partial discharge in high-voltage electrical systems. These benefits are only part of what is possible with the high bandwidth and unprecedented resolution of PerCiv FBG interrogators.
How does it work
Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors function by detecting shifts in the Bragg wavelength, which occur in response to changes in the surrounding environment. Spectral analysis techniques, including interferometers, tunable optical filters, tunable lasers, or diffraction elements, are used to measure this shift accurately. Most of these approaches have drawbacks that are related to the maximum sampling speed (usually reaching tens of KHz only), the bandwidth (interferometry interrogators can see dynamic changes, but omit the static ones), resolution or sensitivity,
PerCiv's unique approach converts Bragg-wavelength shifts into electronic (RF) signal changes. Once the demodulation of the Bragg data is transferred to the electronic domain, standard analog-to-digital techniques guarantee very high sampling speeds.