WATERLOO, Ont. (May 30, 2011) – Dr. Ehsan Toyserkani and Dr. Hamidreza Alemohammad from the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo have created a novel Optical Sensor capable of simultaneously detecting temperature and pressure at the same location.
There are many situations where it is necessary to know the simultaneous temperature and pressure of an object. For example, for public safety reasons, municipal engineers are interested in monitoring the “health” of bridges. If the temperature drops too low, then the bridge may ice over causing dangerous driving conditions. If the bridge experiences very high levels of strain, this may be an early indicator of imminent collapse. Currently this kind of infrastructure health monitoring is accomplished via the use of a series of different sensors. The use of multiple sensors also requires the use of multiple readout-controllers which makes implementing such monitoring systems expensive. In contrast, the Waterloo optical fiber sensor utilizes a special on-fiber thin coating to allow for multiple simultaneous measurement of two parameters, such as temperature and pressure, with the a coinciding need for only one single readout-controller.
As the Waterloo sensor utilizes light instead of electricity, it is thus not affected by magnetic fields and can be utilized in a wide variety of environments where using electrical components may be dangerous. In addition to infrastructure monitoring, this unique sensor can be used to create “smart machine tools” or “smart moulds” that could predict imminent tool failure thereby minimizing costly damage to machinery and parts as well as enhancing overall manufacturing safety. This sensor may also have some medical device applications such as in-vitro and in-vivo monitoring .
The Waterloo Commercialization Office (WatCo) working in partnership with Dr. Ehsan Toyserkani and Dr. Hamidreza Alemohammad have filed a patent application on the Superstructure Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor Technology. Eric Luvisotto, a Patent Agent and Technology Transfer Officer within WatCo, has worked with the researchers to successfully secure $145K of funding from the C4 Network - Proof of Principle and the NSERC-Idea to Innovation programs to fund the development of commercially relevant prototypes that will be marketed to potential licensees or startup company investors.
For further information, please contact Eric Luvisotto.