Institut national d’optique - INO

When it comes to improving industrial processes, quality control, or medical diagnostics, you need to be able to continuously monitor certain physical, chemical, or biological parameters. Optical fiber sensors are perfect for in-situ applications because they are light, small, and insensitive to electromagnetic fields, corrosion, high temperatures, and radiation. In addition, since they require no electricity at the point of measurement, they are particularly well suited to biological or potentially explosive environments. They also make it possible to take measurements over great distances, and multiple sensors can be multiplexed on a single fiber.

We put our wide range of expertise to work to develop concrete, custom solutions fully adapted to your specific needs.

Our strength: multidisciplinary expertise

Optical fiber sensors pose many technical challenges, and developing them generally requires the expertise of multidisciplinary teams. INO’s team is in an enviable position because it has the in-house capability to develop a variety of optical fibers specially adapted to the specific needs of sensors such as microstructured optical fibers. Our expertise is further enhanced the convergence of a number of other specialties developed at INO, such as optical fiber laser micromachining and the design and fabrication of microoptical components and optoelectronic devices and instruments. We boast a variety of state-of-the-art equipment, including instruments for cleaving and fusing fibers of a variety of diameters and compositions, and multiple simulation tools that we use to study and design our specialty optical fibers and fiber components.

Advantages of fiber sensors over electronic sensors

Fiber sensors outperform electronic sensors because of those reasons:

• their insensitivity to electromagnetic interference, corrosion, radiation, and high temperatures (hostile environments)
• their small gauge (typically < 1 mm) and their extensive range (1 to 10,000 m)
• their lack of electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity. 

The main physical parameters optical fiber sensors can measure are temperature, pressure, stress, rotation, vibration, and shock. Chemical optical fiber sensors are associated with the analytical chemistry of liquids and gases and are generally used to determine the concentrations of the chemical components of a mixture.

Take a look at our various achievements and discover the range of possible applications or contact us to find out how we can meet your specific needs.