High-temperature fiber-tip pressure sensor

This paper presents a miniature fiber-optic high-temperature pressure sensor fabricated on the tip of a singlemode (SM) fiber by means of fusion splicing, cleaving, and wet chemical etching. A new approach was developed to simplify the fabrication and greatly improve the sensitivity. The sensor is made entirely of fused silica, whose high-temperature sensing capability is explored in detail for the first time. Two sensors were tested up to 611/spl deg/C and 710/spl deg/C, respectively, showing excellent repeatability better than 0.62% and 1.4%. The maximum operating temperature is limited by the mechanical creep of the fused silica diaphragm.