This paper presents a characterization of ultrasonic generation from the sidewall of an optical fiber. Ultrasonic generation from an optical fiber could have broad applications, such as ultrasonic imaging, ultrasonic nondestructive test (NDT), and acoustic pyrometers and so on. There are many advantages of these fiber-optic ultrasonic transducers, such as small size, light weight, ease of use, and immunity to electromagnetic interference. This paper discusses two main factors that will influence the signal strength generated by the sidewall of the ultrasonic generator. The two factors are the thickness of the photoabsorption material and the optical energy emitted from the sidewall fiber. A 20 mm length fiber-optic sidewall ultrasonic generator was used for the characterization. Gold-nanocomposite materials were used as the photoabsorption material. A hydrophone was used to detect the ultrasonic signal. The ultrasonic time and frequency profile and the ultrasonic field distribution at the longitudinal section of this fiber-optic sidewall ultrasonic generator have been characterized in this paper.
This paper presents a novel fiber optic ultrasonic sensing system to measure high temperature in the air. Traveling velocity of sound in a medium is proportional to medium’s temperature. The fiber optic ultrasonic sensing system was applied to measure the change of sound velocity. A fiber optic ultrasonic generator and a Fabry-Perot fiber sensor were used as the signal generator and receiver, respectively. A carbon black- Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material was utilized as the photoacoustic material for the fiber optic ultrasonic generator. A water cooling system was applied to cool down the photoacoustic material. A test was performed at lab furnace environment (up to 700 ℃). The sensing system survived 700℃. It successfully detect the ultrasonic signal and got the temperature measurements. The test results agreed with the reference sensor data. The paper validated the high temperature measurement capability of the novel fiber optic ultrasonic sensing system. The fiber optic ultrasonic sensing system could have broad applications. One example is that it could serve as acoustic pyrometers for 3D temperature distribution reconstruction in an industrial combustion facility
Ultrasonic corrosion detection has been developed and widely applied in non-invasive tests in civil engineering. This paper demonstrates real time fiber optic ultrasonic corrosion detection on reinforcing rebar based on photoacoustic (PA) principle in non-invasive tests in civil engineering. The optical acoustic sensors are fabricated to monitoring the corrosion of rebar in concrete. This paper explores an approach to make an assessment for the level of rebar corrosion as well. From the experimental results, the trend of central frequency had a shift to lower based on the development of corrosion. Since the sensor can measure the rebar corrosion timely, it will have a significant step on structural health monitoring.
Ultrasonic wave based structural health monitoring (SHM) is an innovative method for nondestructive detection and an
area of growing interest. This is due to high demands for wireless detection in the field of structural engineering. Through
optically exciting and detecting ultrasonic waves, electrical wire connections can be avoided, and non-contact SHM can
be achieved. With the combination of piezoelectric transducer (PZT) (which possesses high heat resistance) and the noncontact
detection, this system has a broad range of applications, even in extreme conditions. This paper reports an all-optically
driven SHM system. The resonant frequencies of the PZT transducers are sensitive to a variety of structural
damages. Experimental results have verified the feasibility of the all-optically driven SHM system.
Ultrasonic temperature measurements have been developed and widely applied in non-contact temperature tests in many industries. However, using optical fibers to build ultrasound generators are novel. This paper reports this new fiber optic ultrasonic system based on the generator of gold nanoparticles/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites. The optical acoustic system was designed to test the change of temperature on the aluminum plate and the temperature of the torch in the air. This paper explores the relationship between the ultrasonic transmission and the change of temperature. From the experimental results, the trend of ultrasonic speed was different in the aluminum plate and air with the change of temperature. Since the system can measure the average temperature of the transmission path, it will have significant influence on simulating the temperature distribution.
Ultrasound generation from an optical fiber, based on the photoacoustic principle, could have broad applications, such as
ultrasound nondestructive test (NDT) and biomedical ultrasound imaging. There are many advantages of these fiber-optic
ultrasonic transducers, such as small size, light weight, ease of use, and immunity to electromagnetic interference.
This paper will demonstrate a novel structure which the ultrasound signal is generated on the sidewall of the fiber. Two
experimental configurations of the fiber-optic sidewall ultrasonic transducer are discussed. One is that a photoacoustic
material is directly coated on the sidewall of the optical fiber. The other one is that the photoacoustic material is directly
coated on an aluminum plate and the sidewall fiber is buried in the material. By using this novel sidewall ultrasound
generator, we can effectively generate ultrasound signal at multiple, particular locations along one fiber.
Fiber optic acoustic generators have generated a lot of interest due to its great potential in many applications including nondestructive tests. This paper reports four acoustic generation configurations. All the configurations are based on gold nanoparticles/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites. Since gold nanoparticles have high absorption efficiency to optical energy and PDMS has a high coefficient of thermal expansion, the composites can transfer optical energy to ultrasonic waves with high conversion efficiency. The strength and bandwidth of ultrasonic waves generated by the composites can be changed by different designs and structures of the composites. This paper explores the relation between the structure of fiber optic acoustic generators and the profile of generated ultrasonic waves. Experimental results also demonstrated that four ultrasonic generation configurations have similar features of ultrasonic transmission on a steel plate, which is important for future choices of ultrasonic receivers.
Optical excitation and detection of a quartz crystal resonator have been realized experimentally. Optical fibers have been used to excite the crystal through the thermoelastic effect. The resonator vibration was detected through another piece of optical fiber. The results provided a foundation for future remote optical excitation of resonant sensors for sensing application in extreme environments.
Ultrasound generation from an optical fiber, based on the photoacoustic principle, is a promising approach to many ultrasonic applications, specifically those requiring wide bandwidth and compact size in order to achieve high resolution as well as the capability of being operated in limited space. A fiber-optic ultrasound generator using gold nanopores is reported. The gold nanopores, having high absorption efficiency, were fabricated using a focused ion beam (FIB) on the fiber endface, which was excited by a nanosecond laser in order to generate ultrasound signals via the photoacoustic principle. Experimental results demonstrate that these wide bandwidth ultrasound signals can be generated by this compact fiber-optic ultrasound generator fabricated using a FIB.
This paper presents a nondestructive ultrasound test method for characterizing resonant frequencies of
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) thin films by using a miniature fiber optic photoacoustic (PA) probe. The PA probe was
fabricated with an optical fiber and the synthesized gold nanocomposite. During the experiment, a PDMS film with
thickness of 25 μm was cured and immersed into water media within a designed holder to clamp the film. An acoustic pulse was generated from the PA probe, propagated in the water media and excited the clamped film. A fiber optic pressure sensor based on Fabry-Perot (FP) principle was applied to collect excited acoustic signals on the other side of the film. The sensed response of the acoustic pulse was used to compute the resonant frequencies of the PDMS thin film based on de-convolution method.
Ultrasound generation on optical fiber based on photoacoustic principle is a promising approach for many advanced
ultrasonic applications, which require wide bandwidth and compact size in order to achieve high resolution as well as the capability of being operated in limited space. This paper reports a fiber optic photoacoustic ultrasound generator using gold nanopattern. The gold nanopattern with high absorption efficiency was fabricated using focused ion beam (FIB) on the fiber endface, which was excited by a nanosecond laser to generate ultrasound signals via the photoacoustic principle. Experimental results demonstrated that ultrasound signals can be generated by this approach and the fiber optic ultrasound generator can be used in the advanced ultrasonic applications.
Recently, many advanced ultrasound applications require wide bandwidth and compact ultrasound generators to achieve better resolution as well as the capability of being operated in a compact space. Generating ultrasound signals through photoacoustic principle is a promising way to generate wide bandwidth ultrasound signals by the optical approach. Meanwhile, optical fibers are ideal candidates for applications where compact size is required. Therefore, fiber optic photoacoustic generators, which put advantages of the photoacoustic principle and optical fibers together, lead to novel ultrasound generation devices which can meet the most advanced ultrasound applications requirements. This paper firstly reports using the gold nanocomposite to achieve the fiber optic photoacoustic ultrasound generator. The gold nanocomposite was synthesized by directly mixing the gold salt in polydimethylsiloxane. The gold nanocomposite showed high optical energy absorption capability and the high coefficient of thermal expansion. The photoacoustic generation efficiency was increased by applying such material. The synthesis protocol of the gold nanocomposite was presented in this paper. The optical fiber was coated with the gold nanocomposite to generate ultrasound signals. Experimental results have demonstrated that ultrasound signals can be generated by this approach and the fiber optic ultrasound generator can be used in ultrasound applications.
This paper presents a miniature fiber optic temperature sensor and its application in concrete structural health
monitoring. The temperature sensor is based on Fabry-Perot (FP) principle. The endface of the fiber was wet etched. A
piece of borosilicate glass was thermally deposited into the cavity on the etched endface to form an FP cavity.
Temperature calibration experiments were performed. A sensor with 30 μm microcavity length was demonstrated to
have a sensitivity of 0.006 nm/°C and linearity coefficient of 0.99. During the early-age of concreting, the sensor was
embedded in the concrete structure to monitor the temperature change caused by the exothermic chemical reaction
between the cement and water. The dramatically increased temperature inside the structure was directly related to its
future structural health. During the concrete hydration experiment, the measured peak temperature of concrete specimens
was 59.7 °C 12.5 hour after concrete casting.
Recently, many studies have been exerted on developing ultrasonic transducers that can feature high frequencies for
better resolutions and compact sizes for the limit space nondestructive testing applications. Conventional ultrasonic
transducers, which are made by piezoelectric materials, suffer from issues such as low frequencies and bulky sizes due to
the difficulty of dicing piezoelectric materials into smaller pieces. On the other hand, generating ultrasonic signals by
photoacoustic principle is a promising way to generate a high frequency ultrasonic pulse. Optical fiber is a very compact
material that can carry the light energy. By combining the photoacoustic principle and the optical fiber together, a novel
ultrasonic transducer that features a high frequency and a compact size could be achieved. In this paper, an ultrasonic
transducer using gold nanoparticles as the photoacoustic generation material is described. Gold nanoparticles are
deposited on the end surface of an optical fiber acting as the ultrasonic generator. A cavity and a diaphragm are
fabricated in the center of the fiber using as the ultrasonic receiver. A phase array technique is applied to the transducer
to steer the direction of the acoustic beam. Simulation results demonstrated that the photoacoustic ultrasonic transducer
is feasible.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI, also called intracranial injury) is a high potential threat to our soldiers. A helmet structural
health monitoring system can be effectively used to study the effects of ballistic/blast events on the helmet and human
skull to prevent soldiers from TBI. However, one of the biggest challenges lies in that the pressure sensor installed inside
the helmet system must be fast enough to capture the blast wave during the transient period. In this paper, an ultrafast
optical fiber sensor is presented to measure the blast signal. The sensor is based on a Fabry-Pérot (FP) interferometeric
principle. An FP cavity is built between the endface of an etched optical fiber tip and the silica thin diaphragm attached
on the end of a multimode optical fiber. The sensor is small enough to be installed in different locations of a helmet to
measure blast pressure simultaneously. Several groups of tests regarding multi-layer blast events were conducted to
evaluate the sensors' performance. The sensors were mounted in different segments of a shock tube side by side with the
reference sensors, to measure a rapidly increasing pressure. The segments of the shock tube were filled with different
media. The results demonstrated that our sensors' responses agreed well with those from the electrical reference sensors.
In addition, the home-made shock tube could provide a good resource to study the propagation of blast event in different
media.
Fractional flow reserve (FFR) has proven to be very useful in diagnosis of narrowed coronary arteries. It is a technique
that is used in coronary catheterization to measure blood pressure difference across a coronary artery stenosis in maximal
flow. In-vivo blood pressure measurement is critical in FFR diagnosis. This paper presents a novel miniature all-optical
fiber blood pressure sensor. It is based on Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometry principle. The FP cavity was fabricated by
directly wet etching the fiber tip. Then, a diaphragm with well-controlled thickness was bonded to the end face of the
fiber using the thermal bonding technique. Finally, the sensor was packaged with a bio-compatible and flexible coil for
animal tests. A 25-50 kg Yorkshire swine model was introduced as the animal test target. The left anterior descending
coronary artery (LAD) was exposed, and beyond the takeoff of the largest diagonal branch, a 3.0 mm vascular occluder
was secured. Firstly, standard invasive manometry was used to obtain the blood pressure as baseline. Next, a guiding
catheter was introduced into the ostium of the left main coronary artery, and the miniature blood pressure sensor was
advanced into the LAD at a point beyond the vascular occlude. The blood pressure beyond the vascular occlude was
recorded. The sensor successfully recorded the blood pressure at both near-end and far-end of the vascular occluder.
An optical fiber biosensor featuring miniaturization, electromagnetic interference (EMI)-immunity, and flexibility is
presented. The sensor was fabricated by aligning two gold-deposited optical single-mode fiber facets inside V-grooves
on a silicon chip to form a Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity. The mirrors on the fiber facets were made of deposited gold (Au)
films, which provided a high finesse to produce a highly sensitivity. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
fabrication techniques were used to precisely control the profile and angle of the V-grooves on the silicon. The biotin-terminated
thiol molecule was firstly immobilized on the gold surface. Subsequently, the molecules of Neutravidin were
specifically bound to the biotin-terminated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). The induced changes of cavity length
and refractive index (RI) upon the gold surface lead to an optical path difference (OPD) of the FP cavity, which was
detected by demodulating the transmission spectrum phase shift. By taking advantage of MEMS techniques, multiple
biosensors can be integrated into one small silicon chip for detecting various biomolecule targets simultaneously.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a great potential threat to soldiers who are exposed to explosions or athletes who receive
cranial impacts. Protecting people from TBI has recently attracted a significant amount of attention due to recent military
operations in the Middle East. Recording pressure transient data in a blast event is very critical to the understanding of the
effects of blast events on TBI. However, due to the fast change of the pressure during blast events, very few sensors have
the capability to effectively track the dynamic pressure transients. This paper reports an ultra fast, miniature and all-optical
fiber pressure sensor which could be mounted at different locations of a helmet to measure the fast changing pressure
simultaneously. The sensor is based on Fabry-Perot (FP) principle. The end face of the fiber is wet etched. A well
controlled thickness silicon dioxide diaphragm is thermal bonded on the end face to form an FP cavity. A shock tube test
was conducted at Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center, where the sensors were mounted in a
shock tube side by side with a reference sensor to measure the rapidly changing pressure. The results of the test
demonstrated that the sensor developed had an improved rise time (shorter than 0.4 μs) when compared to a commercially
available reference sensor.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a great potential threat to people who deal with explosive devices. Protection from TBI
has attracted more and more interest. Great efforts have been taken to the studies on the understanding of the
propagation of the blast events and its effect on TBI. However, one of the biggest challenges is that the current available
pressure sensors are not fast enough to capture the blast wave especially the transient period. This paper reports an
ultrafast pressure sensor that could be very useful for analysis of the fast changing blast signal. The sensor is based on
Fabry-Perot (FP) principle. It uses a 45º angle polished fiber sitting in a V-groove on a silicon chip. The endface of the
angle polished fiber and the diaphragm which is lifted off on the side wall of the V-groove form the FP cavity. The
sensor is very small and can be mounted on different locations of a helmet to measure blast pressure simultaneously. The
tests were conducted at Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) in Natick, MA. The
sensors were mounted in a shock tube, side by side with the reference sensors, to measure a rapidly increased pressure.
The results demonstrated that our sensors' responses agreed well with those from the electrical reference sensors and
their response time is comparable.
The low energy-conversion efficiency in photoacoustic generation is the most critical hurdle preventing its wide
applications. In recent studies, it was found that the selection of the energy-absorbing layer material and design of the
acoustic generator structure both determine the photoacoustic conversion efficiency. The selection of the absorbing
material is based on its optical, thermal, and mechanical properties. In this research, we calculated and compared the
conversion efficiencies of six different absorbing film materials: bulk aluminum, bulk gold, graphite foil, graphite
powder-resin mixture, gold nanospheres, and gold nanorods. The calculations were carried out by a finite element
modeling (FEM) software, COMSOL Multiphysics. A 2D-axisymmetric model in COMSOL was built up to simulate a
3-layer structure: optical fiber tip, light absorbing film, and surrounding water. Three equations governed the thermo-elastic
generation of ultrasonic waves: the heat conduction, thermal expansion and acoustic wave equations. In "thick-film"
generation regime, majority of the laser energy is absorbed by the film and converted to high-frequency film
vibration, and the vibration excites the ultrasound wave in the adjacent water, while the water would not be heated
directly by the laser. From the results of this FEM simulation, the acoustic signal generated by gold nanosphere (or
nanorod) film is over two times stronger than that generated by graphite powder-resin film of the same thickness. This
simulation provides a strong support to the absorbing material selection for our proposed fiber ultrasound generator.
A 2D-axisymmetric finite element analysis (FEA) model was built to simulate an optical fiber-based photoacoustic
generator. A layer of absorbing film deposited on the tip of an optical fiber converts the pulsed-laser energy into
vibrations, which excite broadband ultrasound waves in the adjacent fluid. Instead of 1D or simplified 2D theoretical
solution, this multi-physics FEA model successfully calculates the ultrasound generated by film vibration and fluid
heating. Another advantage of this numerical calculation is that the dimensions of fiber and film can be optimized to
achieve high photoacoustic conversion efficiency. Two major conclusions were obtained from the simulation: 1) Thicker
absorbing film has higher photoacoustic conversion efficiency than thinner film; 2) Shorter laser pulse leads to higher
conversion efficiency and higher ultrasound central-frequency. The FEA results provide a practical support to the design
of this type of optical fiber photoacoustic generator, and make it possible to have a miniaturized non-destructive testing
transducer in the intravascular and intraluminal applications.
Ultrasound transducers have been used in various applications such as nondestructive testing, acoustic response analysis
of vascular tissues, and medical imaging. Most recent applications lead to a demand of more advanced ultrasound
generators featuring higher central frequency, wider bandwidth and miniature size. In this paper, a novel ultrasound
generator on an optical fiber tip is designed, fabricated and characterized. The ultrasound generator was fabricated by
coating several layers of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) on the end face of a piece of commercially available optical fiber
via a layer-by-layer (L-b-L) technique. The Au NPs were synthesized by a traditional sodium citrate reduction method
and the diameter of Au NPs was controlled at 20 nm. The ultrasound is generated through photoacoustic procedure. By
introducing excitation laser pulses on the Au NPs layer, the energy of laser is converted into the heat through
photothermal mechanism. Then, the heat transforms into kinetic energy through thermalelastic mechanism. Thus,
ultrasound can be generated. The experiment results showed that this kind of ultrasound generator shows wide
bandwidth, high frequency and miniature size. By comparing to the conventional energy absorption material such as
graphite, the Au NPs show high energy absorption efficiency and high thermal expansion rate. Therefore, the generator
exhibits great potentials in intravascular imaging due to its miniature size.
The adaptive neural network is a standard technique used in nonlinear system estimation and learning applications for
dynamic models. In this paper, we introduced an adaptive sensor fusion algorithm for a helmet structure health
monitoring system. The helmet structure health monitoring system is used to study the effects of ballistic/blast events on
the helmet and human skull. Installed inside the helmet system, there is an optical fiber pressure sensors array. After
implementing the adaptive estimation algorithm into helmet system, a dynamic model for the sensor array has been
developed. The dynamic response characteristics of the sensor network are estimated from the pressure data by applying
an adaptive control algorithm using artificial neural network. With the estimated parameters and position data from the
dynamic model, the pressure distribution of the whole helmet can be calculated following the Bazier Surface
interpolation method. The distribution pattern inside the helmet will be very helpful for improving helmet design to
provide better protection to soldiers from head injuries.
Raman spectroscopy is a technology that can detect and distinguish materials based on the materials' Raman
scattering. However, the signal produced using this technology is usually too small to be useful. The Raman
spectrum signal can be enhanced by creating rough patches on the surface of the material. In this paper, a novel
method to produce nanometer-sized features on optical materials such as glass, fused silica, and quartz substrate is
presented. Using a femtosecond laser, the transparent materials are sputtered and deposited. When the materials
cool down, they produce structures with nano-features. These nano-features on optical materials can make
designing optical sensing systems much easier. Scanning electron microscope photos of nano-structures on quartz
substrate and optical fiber show that features less than 100 nm in size have been successfully fabricated. The 3D
micro- and nano-structures of the sensor were studied using a confocal Raman spectrum microscope and focused
ion-beam milling. Raman spectrum signals show that the strength of the signal generated by Raman scattering was
greatly enhanced compared to substrates without nano-features.
A tapered optical fiber sensor (TOFS) is a kind of optical fiber sensor that uses special geometries to measure properties
of surrounding environments or samples using evanescent waves. This paper presents a fast, highly sensitive, and
inexpensive tapered optical fiber biosensor that, using a miniature sensing structure, enables the label-free direct
detection of biomolecules. The sensor takes advantage of the interference effect between the fiber's first two modes
along the taper waist region. This effect causes some interference fringes in the transmission spectrum. Because of its
sharp spectrum fringe signals and its long biomolecule testing region, the sensor is fast and highly sensitive. To better
understand the influence of various biomolecules on the sensor, a computer simulation that varied such bio-layer
parameters as thickness and refractive index was performed. The result of 0.4 nm/nm showed that the spectrum fringe
shift of the sensor was large enough to be easily measured even when the bio-layer was nanometers thick. A tapered
optical fiber biosensor was then fabricated and evaluated with an immune globulin G (IgG) antibody-antigen pair, and
showed good performance.
A novel ultrasound generator-receiver built on a single-mode optical fiber using a layer of gold nanoparticles has been
designed. The generator takes advantage of the optical and photo-acoustic properties of gold nanoparticles. Thermal and
pressure waves are generated in the nano-particle layer when it is exposed to high intensity, short duration laser
radiation. The laser radiation is applied in an intensity range that creates an instantaneous surface heating of the layer
material that, in turn, drives a pressure wave into the layer. The pressure wave interacts with the layer-substrate interface
to create stress distributions of varying strengths and qualities, depending on the intensity and duration of the initial laser
pulse. The radiation due to laser-induced heating on the nano-particles was investigated using FEA analyses. The
maximum principal stress distribution was investigated by the FEA. Results indicate that the ultrasound generation
elements have almost zero effect on the diaphragm.
A novel Fabry-Perot interferometer pressure/acoustic sensor has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The sensor
consists of an angle-polished fiber, a V-shaped groove on a silicon substrate, and a silicon nitride diaphragm on the side
wall of the groove. The design uses MEMS technology to ensure precise cavity length control and diaphragm design
flexibility. Two shock wave tests were performed on the sensors: one where a balloon was popped near the sensors, and
another that used a shock tube to simulate a blast event. Multi-sensor assemblies, where all the sensors were calibrated to
have similar center wavelengths, were also put together. The assemblies were tested simultaneously using a single laser
source. The results of all these tests showed that the performance of the Fabry-Perot sensors closely matched that of the
reference sensors used.
A novel ultrasound generator consisting of a single mode optical fiber with a layer of gold nanoparticles on its tip has
been designed. The generator utilizes the optical and photo-acoustic properties of gold nanoparticles. When heated by
laser pulses, a thin absorption layer made up of these nanoparticles at the cleaved surface of a single mode fiber
generates a mechanical shock wave caused by thermal expansion. Mie's theory was applied in a MATLAB simulation to
determine the relationship between the absorption efficiency and the optical resonance wavelengths of a layer of gold
nanospheres. Results showed that the absorption efficiency and related resonance wavelengths of gold nanospheres
varied based on the size of the gold nanosphere particles. In order to obtain the bandwidths associated with ultrasound,
another MATLAB simulation was run to study the relationship between the power of the laser being used, the size of the
gold nanosphere, and the energy decay time. The results of this and the previous simulation showed that the energy
decay time is picoseconds in length.
The potential of thin film thickness variation measurement method, reflectometric interference spectroscopy (RIfS), for a
compact label-free biosensor is investigated. A model to estimate thickness variation is built based on RIfS. A set-up of
the sensor having dual Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and one photo detector are introduced. To verify the model,
sample chips with different thicknesses of silica film layers ranging from 2 to 20nm are used in the experiment. The
estimated values are compared with their reference values which are measured by an Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).
Since the chosen LEDs' wavelength is not an ideal one, the comparison shows that the model underestimates the
thickness variation. By using dual LEDs and a photo detector with the reliable model, the handheld device for
transparent thin film measurement will become practical.
This paper presents a label-free biosensor using two Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) as light sources and a photo detector
as a receiver. The sensor uses a silica-on-silicon wafer with PMMA [Poly(methyl methacrylate)] as the functional layer.
The principle of this biosensor is based on the Fabry Perot (FP) interferometer. A thickness of a 100 nm PMMA layer is
spin-coated on the silicon wafer, which has a thin thermal oxide layer of 500 nm. In such a configuration, the PMMA
layer and silica layer function as an FP cavity. When a light illuminates the surface of the sensor, the reflections from the
PMMA-air and silica-silicon interfaces will interfere with each other. Consequently, the change of the cavity length,
which is caused by biomaterial binding on the PMMA layer, will result in a red shift in the reflection spectrum. An
intensity change of the reflection light will be observed on an individual wavelength. In order to eliminate environment
noise and to enhance the sensitivity of the sensor, two LEDs, whose center wavelength is chosen on either side of the
spectrum notch, are introduced in the system. A photo detector will alternatively obtain the intensities of the two
individual reflected lights, and collect the signal via a data acquisition system. Long-term tests have shown that the
sensor is resistant to environmental fluctuation. Biolinker Protein G' was used for binding tests. The sensor shows great
potential in biosensor applications due to its compact size and low cost.
In order to realize laser beam steering, a driving and control system based on Voice Coil Actuator (VCA) is designed for
linear motion of micro-lens array. According to the feedback displacement signals acquired from displacement sensor,
controller of the system sends control signals to Purse Width Modulator (PWM) driver which is used to power the VCA.
VCA provides driving force for the support structure of the system which connects the micro-lens array, and then the
linear motion of micro-lens array is achieved with the movement of support structure. The effectiveness of the system
was verified through experiment. Experiments results show that the displacement resolution of the linear driving and
control system is 10&mgr;m , which satisfies the requirement for laser beam steering.
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