Digital signal processing for fiber-optic thermometers

Abstract

A digital signal processing scheme for measurement of exponentially-decaying signals, such as those found in fluorescence, lifetime-based, fiber-optic sensors, is proposed. The instrument uses a modified digital phase-sensitive-detection technique with the phase locked to a fixed value and the modulation period tracking the measured lifetime. Typical resolution of the system is 0.05% for slow decay (>500 /spl mu/s) and 0.1% for fast decay.<>