“Specialty fibers for fiber sensor applications”

Over the years, optical fibers and fiber-optic based sensors have seen increased acceptance and widespread use for a variety of industrial, civil, process control, and defense applications. Given their EM immunity, intrinsic safety, small size & weight, and capability to perform multi-point and multi-parameter sensing remotely, makes them an attractive, flexible, reliable and unique sensing solution. Their use and adoption continues to increase beyond the traditional telecomm sectors, and now specialty fibers and fiber sensors have become a “go-to” technology in several harsh environment or hazardous applications in the oil & gas industry, mining, electric utilities, marine, and several others. However, several technical challenges and commercial hurdles remain. This talk will illustrate the benefits and uses of specialty optical fibers in fiber sensors, through several real-life application examples and success stories in structural monitoring, aerospace, industrial process control, transportation, oil & gas, and others. Key technical and industrial trends will be identified, along with relevant commercial opportunities and challenges.