AMPLIFIED SENSOR ARRAYS

摘要

The present invention significantly improves the signal to noise ratio (SNR) in a passive optical array comprising sensors (110) located in rungs between a distribution bus (100) and a return bus (120). Erbium-doped optical fiber amplifiers (130, 132) are included in the buses proximate to each rung coupling to offset the coupler splitting losses. The gains of the amplifiers are selected to offset losses due to the couplings. The overall SNR can be maintained without significant degradation even for large numbers of sensors. In one aspect of the present invention, the amplifiers are located along the distribution and return buses directly after the couplers (140, 142), except for the last coupler. In a second aspect, the amplifiers are located directly before each coupler. The optical amplifiers preferably are made of short lengths of erbium-doped fiber spliced into the distribution and return buses.