Compact, High-Resolution OFDR Unit For Aerospace Applications Navy SBIR FY2005.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2005.1 Topic No.: N05-021 Topic Title: Compact, High-Resolution OFDR Unit For Aerospace Applications Proposal No.: N051-021-0667 Firm: Luna Innovations Incorporated 2851 Commerce Street Blacksburg, Virginia 24060-6657 Contact: Fritz Friedersorf Phone: (540) 552-5128 Web Site: www.lunainnovations.com Abstract: Short-length optical communications networks such as those employed on military aircraft are in need of frequent assessment of link health. Precise location and identification of cracks and breaks, as well as an accurate assessment of loss due to fiber bends, splices, and connectors, are critical to maintaining signal integrity along the link. Commercial OTDR units do not have the spatial resolution required for short-length network analysis; the resolution or dead zones of many OTDR units can equal total link lengths for aerospace applications. To address the diagnostic needs of short networks, Luna Innovations proposes to develop a compact, high-spatial resolution Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometer (OFDR). The OFDR unit will incorporate optical ASIC and compact, swept-frequency laser technology. During the phase I effort, an OFDR laboratory unit will be fabricated and tested to demonstrate the utility of the technique. During phase II, an optical ASIC incorporating the OFDR network will be fabricated. Specialized sampling and processing electronics will be developed and integrated with the laser and optical ASIC resulting in a compact, rugged, light weight OFDR unit with millimeter spatial resolution. This OFDR unit is expected to be completely compatible with 50-GHz, ITU-grid WDM systems. Benefits: The immediate envisioned use of this technology is field-testing of optical communications and sensing networks in military aircraft. Not only would these units diagnose fiber breaks and connector losses, but would also be able to conduct high-accuracy loss measurements, providing a complete optical network diagnostic solution. It is anticipated that this technology will find use in many aerospace applications such as health monitoring of optical communications and sensing networks in air-, land-, and sea-based military vehicles. It is also expected that the proposed technology would find commercial use for link installation and maintenance diagnostic needs in optical Local Area Networks (LANs). Perhaps most significantly, the OFDR unit represents a subset of a complete distributed sensing system. The resulting miniaturized, ruggedized DSS would be less susceptible to vibration, resulting in a higher level of reliability and hence would have great utility as a field-portable sensing unit. Such units could continuously provide distributed airframe strain, shape, temperature, and/or pressure measurements. Return