Fast FBG Interrogator on Chip Based on Silicon on Insulator Ring Resonator Add/Drop Filters

A fast FBG sensor interrogator on chip based on SOI ring resonator (RR) filters is presented. The measurement of the Bragg wavelength shift is based on the detection of multiple signals at the output ports of the RR filter, providing fast dynamic strain measurement capabilities, fundamentally limited by the photodetector bandwidth and signal processing. The ring resonator resonance wavelength is tuned and fixed by an integrated heater and the ring acts as a passband filter for the reflected FBG spectrum. After a theoretical analysis of the interrogation method, which allows the optimization of the RR characteristics depending on the specific application and requirements, we present experimental results on a single RR based interrogation scheme applying high frequency dynamic strain up to 40 kHz. We also theoretically evaluate the performance of multi-ring resonators. The proposed scheme provides low cost, high scalability to mass-volume market applications as well as an extremely fast interrogation method.