Abstract:
A method of interrogating a phase based transducer by providing a pulsed input including two different wavelengths in which the different wavelength components can be used to derive a phase change experienced by a synthetic wavelength, and by arranging for the synthetic wavelength to be significantly greater that the component wavelengths, the phase so detected has a reduced sensitivity, and is less susceptible to overscaling effects.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     (1) Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to sensors which exploit a change in phase of an interrogation signal to determine a sensed parameter, and particularly, but not exclusively to fibre optic interferometric sensing. The present invention finds particular application in the filed of seismic surveying and imaging. 
     (2) Description of the Art 
     Fibre optic sensors employ a length of optic fibre arranged in such a way that a sensed parameter causes a strain to be imposed on the fibre. Typically the fibre is arranged in a coil, although other arrangements are possible. Such strain causes a change in phase of the optical signal propagating in that fibre, which change can be detected by interferometric techniques. A variety of different arrangements for this type of transducer have previously been proposed, many of which have the coil of optic fibre wound on a deformable core or mandrel, which undergoes radial expansion or contraction in response to the sensed parameter, such as sensed vibration. 
     Such fibre optic sensors can exhibit extremely high sensitivities, and have the advantage of being completely passive, employing no power at the sensing transducer. Such sensors have also proved popular in applications where large arrays of sensors are required, on account of the relative ease with which they can be multiplexed. 
     An example of such an application is seismic surveying in the oil and gas exploration industry, where large time multiplexed arrays comprising hundreds or even thousands of vibration sensors and/or hydrophones can be used to sense reflections of an incident pulse from geological formations beneath the sea bed. Sampling such an array at regular periods provides 3D time lapsed data on existing or potential new reserves. 
     A problem experienced with this approach to sensing is that, for a given sampling rate, signals above a certain amplitude threshold cause the phase based sensed information to become distorted, and can cause failure of the demodulation process. This effect, commonly referred to as overloading or overscaling is dependent on the frequency of the measured signal. In seismic systems this can cause a particular problem with the direct arrival of the incident pulse, especially when that pulse has been generated close to the sensors (usually by an airgun towed from a surface vessel as it passes over the array). It is desirable to be able to record this incident pulse without the distortion that overscaling can produce. 
     It is known in the field of optical metrology that a combination of two wavelengths can be used to measure relatively large optical path lengths, of the order of 1 mm for example, to extremely high accuracies using interferometric techniques. This has the effect that the light propagating through the interferometer can be considered as having the synthetic wavelength, giving rise to a synthetic phase or phase change. See for example R. Dandliker, R. Thalmann, and D. Prongue, “Two-wavelength laser interferometry using superheterodyne detection,” Opt. Lett. 13, 339-(1988), which describes a free space interferometer capable of operating at a synthetic wavelength created by two laser sources operating in multiple polarisation states. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is a general object of the present invention to provide improved sensing methods and apparatus, and an object of specific aspects of the invention to provide improved methods and apparatus for sensing using a multiplexed fibre optic sensor array. 
     According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided 
     A method of interrogating a phase based transducer, said transducer adapted to provide a phase output in response to a sensed parameter, said method comprising inputting first and second input pulses to said transducer, said pulses having a time delay therebetween, receiving an output from said transducer in response to said first and second input pulses, and processing the output to determine a measure of the sensed parameter, wherein at least one of said input pulses contains components of at least two different wavelengths. 
     In this way, the transducer can be considered to operate in response to a synthetic wavelength produced by the combination of the two different input wavelengths, producing a synthetic phase output. By arranging for the synthetic wavelength to be significantly greater than either of the two component wavelengths, the synthetic phase is relatively small, and therefore less susceptible to overscaling. Furthermore, since polarisation is not required, a less complex physical implementation is afforded. The method is therefore applicable to existing sensor arrangements, including multiplexed arrays, with little or no modification of hardware. 
     The precise arrangement of wavelengths and pulse timings of possible embodiments are discussed in greater detail below, however in a particularly preferred embodiment one pulse is formed of a first component having a first wavelength and first frequency shift (λ 1  and f 1 ), and a second component having a different wavelength λ 2  and a different frequency shift f 2 . The other pulse of the pulse pair is again formed of two components, the first component having the first wavelength λ 1  and the second component having the second wavelength λ 2 , ie both pulses have essentially the same combination of wavelengths. Both components of the other pulse however have a common, third frequency shift f 3 . 
     This arrangement provides particular advantage in processing the output of a transducer in order to provide a phase measure and hence a measure of the sensed parameter. According to this embodiment, it can be arranged for the transducer output to include phase components at different wavelengths and having different combinations of the three input frequencies. Careful selection of the input frequencies advantageously allows the desired output phase to be derived by frequency selective processes. Preferably the difference between frequencies from different pulses is significantly greater than the difference between the two frequencies in the same pulse. 
     This is particularly well exploited in an arrangement in which the transducer is adapted to produce an output pulse having components derived from both said input pulses, embodiments of which are described in greater detail below. 
     The invention extends to methods, apparatus and/or use substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     Any feature in one aspect of the invention may be applied to other aspects of the invention, in any appropriate combination. In particular, method aspects may be applied to apparatus aspects, and vice versa. 
     Furthermore, features implemented in hardware may generally be implemented in software, and vice versa. Any reference to software and hardware features herein should be construed accordingly. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Preferred features of the present invention will now be described, purely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows a prior art fibre optic transducer arrangement 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a pair of time spaced input pulses 
         FIGS. 3   a - 3   c  show output pulses returned in response to the input of  FIG. 2   
         FIG. 4  shows an arrangement for producing an interrogation signal according to an aspect of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates the pulsed output of the arrangement of  FIG. 4 . 
         FIGS. 6   a  and  6   b  show detection arrangements. 
         FIG. 7  is a frequency diagram illustrating aspects of the detector arrangements of  FIG. 6 . 
         FIGS. 8   a  and  8   b  illustrate an alternative detector arrangement, and associated frequency diagram. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , there is shown schematically a known type of fibre-optic sensor package, indicated generally  102 , comprising four individual fibre-optic sensing coils  104 ,  106 ,  108 ,  110  formed from a single length of optical fibre  13 , and arranged in series. A portion of the optical fibre  112  serves as the package input/output (i/o) fibre. Fibre-coupled mirrors  114 ,  116 ,  118 ,  120 ,  122  are coupled to the optical fibre  13  at respective locations along it such that each of the coils has a fibre-coupled-mirror coupled at each end of it. Other means of reflecting a portion of light from before and after each sensor such as in fibre Bragg gratings could be used instead of the fibre coupled mirrors. In practice for example, three of the coils could be arranged to form three orthogonal fibre optic accelerometers, with the fourth coil forming part of a hydrophone to form a four-component package suitable for seismic surveying applications. The physical arrangement of the coil in each transducer is not material to the present invention, and is not discussed here, however a range of possible arrangements will be known to the skilled reader. A large scale array of such packages can be coupled together, arranged in a spatial configuration, and interrogated periodically using multiplexing to provide time lapsed seismic imagery for example. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , an interrogation of the package  102  of  FIG. 1  may be carried out by introducing a pair of interrogating optical pulses  202 ,  204  into the package i/o fibre  112 . Pulses  202 ,  204  have respective frequencies ω 1 , ω 2  and pulse  202  is delayed by τ=2L/c with respect to pulse  204 , L being the length of coil in the sensor and c being the speed of an optical pulse in the fibre. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates the optical output response of the package by considering the output formed by each of the pair of input pulses. In  FIG. 3   a  the first pulse  202  to arrive at the package is reflected off each of the 5 fibre-coupled mirrors to produce five output pulses  301 ,  302 ,  303 ,  304  and  305 , measured relative to an arbitrary time reference. Similarly, looking at  FIG. 3   b , pulse  204  produces five time delayed output pulses  322 ,  323 ,  324 ,  325  and  326  relative to the same arbitrary time reference. Because the input pulses are delayed by twice the time of flight through a single coil, and because the pulses exist on the same fibre, the two sets of outputs are superposed to produce six pulses  331 ,  332 ,  333 ,  334 ,  335  and  336  shown in  FIG. 3   c . Pulses  331  and  336  represent only a single reflection of a single pulse, however it will be understood that pulses  332  to  335  (shown shaded) each correspond to the combination of two pulses reflected by adjacent fibre coupled mirrors. It will be understood that these pulses therefore represent the combination of a pulse which has passed (twice) through the coil between the two adjacent mirrors, and a pulse which has not. Phase detection can therefore be used to determine the phase change imposed by that coil, and hence a measure of the sensed parameter is obtained as is known in the art. 
     If φ(t) is the sensed parameter, then the signal obtained from a photodetector used to measure a series of pulses returning from a sensor of the type described above can be written as cos(ω c t+φ(t)) ie. the sensed information is represented as a phase change superimposed on a carrier signal of frequency ω c . Techniques that are well known to those skilled in the art can then be used to demodulate the phase signal from the carrier. The carrier frequency is typically chosen to be half of the Nyquist frequency, which is in turn half of the sampling frequency. It is usual for each returning optical pulse to be sampled once and so the sampling frequency is the rate at which pulse pairs are transmitted into the array. By way of an example, the sampling frequency could be approximately 320 KHz, giving a Nyquist frequency of approximately 160 KHz and a carrier frequency of approximately 80 KHz. The sampling frequency will typically have a practical upper limit dependent upon the type and arrangement of sensor or sensors, amongst other factors. 
     An overscale condition occurs when the instantaneous frequency of the phase modulated carrier falls outside the Nyquist band i.e. when 
                 ⅆ     φ   ⁡     (   t   )           ⅆ   t       ≥       ω   N     -     ω   c             
or when
 
                   ⅆ     φ   ⁡     (   t   )           ⅆ   t       ≤     -     ω   c         ,         
where ω N  and ω c  are the Nyquist and carrier frequencies respectively. In practice this results in aliasing of instantaneous frequency back into the Nyquist band by folding or wrapping around one of its limits in frequency space. Depending on the magnitude and frequency of the sensed parameter, the instantaneous frequency can be wrapped back multiple times. If the sensed parameter is modeled approximately as ω(t)=ω 0  cos ω m t, then the condition for overscale not occurring, for the usual condition of ω N =2ω c  is sometimes expressed as
 
     
       
         
           
             
               φ 
               0 
             
             ≤ 
             
               
                 
                   ω 
                   c 
                 
                 
                   ω 
                   m 
                 
               
               . 
             
           
         
       
     
     As will be explained in greater detail below, the larger the interrogating wavelength, the smaller is the phase value returned, and hence the lower is the sensitivity to overscale problems. However there is a practical limit to the values of wavelengths which can be propagated through optic fibres, which are the preferred application for the present invention. By generating a synthetic wavelength from two or more significantly smaller wavelength components however, a synthetic phase measurement having reduced sensitivity to overscale is afforded. 
       FIG. 4  shows an arrangement for producing an interrogation signal according to the present invention. Laser source  402  produces light with wavelength λ 1  which propagates down through the fibre and is split by a coupler  404  so that part of the light enters a first acousto-optic modulator (AOM)  406  and the second part enters a wavelength division multiplexer (WDM)  410 . In a similar manner, light from a second laser source  412  at wavelength λ 2  is also split by a coupler  414 , with part entering WDM  410  and the other part routed through to a second AOM,  416 . Light from WDM  410  passes to a third AOM  418 . 
     The AOMs are adapted to modulate their inputs at certain intervals to allow the passage of pulses of light through the device. AOM  406  is first switched on and shifts wavelength λ 1  through frequency f 1  and simultaneously AOM  416  switches wavelength λ 2  through frequency f 2 . AOM  418  is switched on after a delay period determined by the geometry of the sensor being interrogated and shifts both wavelengths (having been combined in WDM  410 ) through frequency f 3 . In embodiments adapted to interrogate a sensor system as illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the delay period corresponds to twice the time of flight through a coil of the array, and thus the basic principle of operation, and pattern of pulses of input and output is substantially unchanged. The combination of frequencies and wavelength is of course considerably more complex as will be explained below. 
     Frequency shifts imposed by AOMs necessarily also result in a change in wavelength. However, the changes are many orders of magnitude smaller than their base values, and as will be appreciated by the skilled reader it is beneficial for the purposes of this specification to ignore this wavelength perturbation, ie. to consider the output of an AOM to have the same wavelength as its input. References to wavelengths should be construed accordingly. Similarly, two different frequency shifts will typically result in two different frequencies. Both terms may be used herein, and references to frequencies and frequency shifts should be construed appropriately where necessary. 
     The light emerging from AOMs  406 ,  416  and  418  are multiplexed together in a further WDM  420  for onward transmission to the sensor array, so that little light energy is lost through the pulsing network. 
     Referring to  FIG. 5 , the result of the arrangement of  FIG. 4  results in a first pulse containing λ 1  shifted through f 1 , shown as ‘component’ pulse  502 , and λ 2  shifted through f 2 , shown as ‘component’ pulse  504 . The second pulse is shown to contain both wavelengths shifted through f 3 . While it is convenient to consider component pulses individually for ease of understanding, and while pulses  502  and  504  can be identified as the outputs of AOMs  406  and  416  respectively in  FIG. 4 , it will be understood that the actual signal applied to a sensor or sensor array is the wavelength division multiplexed combination of pulse trains  506  and  508 . 
     The output received from a sensor array such as that of  FIG. 1 , in response to the first pulse of the input described above is illustrated as pulse train  510  and is analogous to  FIG. 3   a , while the corresponding output from the second pulse is shown as  512 , and is analogous to  FIG. 3   b . Finally the combined outputs are shown as  514 , and are analogous to  FIG. 3   c . it can be seen that the combined output contains pulses including both wavelengths and all three frequencies used in forming the interrogating waveform. 
     Although the input pulse pattern has been illustrated having first and second frequencies in the first pulse and the third frequency in the second pulse, it will be appreciated that the order of the pulses could equally be reversed, by changing the switching order of the AOMs. 
     In an interferometric system embodying the present invention, output pulses represent the combination of input pulses containing data represented as a phase difference. Here, because two different wavelengths are input to the sensor or transducer the phase difference acquired between the two arms of the interferometer will also be different. The difference between these two measurements is
 
Φ=φ 1 −φ 2 =4π n   eff   L/λ   1 −4π n   eff   L/λ   2 =[4π n   eff   L /(λ+Δλ)](Δλ/λ)
 
where λ 1 =λ, and λ 2 =λ+Δλ. It is therefore apparent from this approach that the interferometer behaves as though the light propagating through its arms has a synthetic wavelength
 
λ syn =(λ+Δλ)λ/Δλ
 
Thus the smaller the difference between the wavelengths, the larger the synthetic wavelength, and therefore the smaller the synthetic phase, Φ.
 
     The synthetic wavelength approach reduces the sensitivity of the sensor by the factor (Δλ/λ). It is then desired to perform phase detection of the synthetic phase to determine the phase change imposed by the transducer, and hence a measure of the sensed parameter. Arrangements capable of performing this phase detection are shown in  FIGS. 5   a  and  5   b.    
     Before considering this detection in further detail, it is useful to consider the output from the transducer. The coherent intensities can be expressed as:
 
 I (λ 1 )= I   o1 {1+ V   1  cos [2π( f   1   −f   3 ) t +φ( M+ 1,λ 1 )−φ( M,λ   1 )]}
 
 I (λ 2 )= I   o2 {1+ V   2  cos [2π( f   2   −f   3 ) t +φ( M+ 1,λ 2 )−φ( M,λ   2 )]}
 
where I(λ 1 ) and I(λ 2 ) are the interferograms corresponding to wavelengths λ 1  and λ 2 . φ(M+1,λ 1 ) and φ(M,λ 1 ) are the phase acquired by wavelength 1 between mirrors M+1 and M in the array, or more generally between different arms of the interferometer in question. If we substitute in these expressions:
 
ω 1 =2π( f   1   −f   3 )
 
ω 2 =2π( f   2   −f   3 )
 
φ 1 =φ( M+ 1,λ 1 )−φ( M,λ   1 )
 
φ 2 =φ( M+ 1,λ 2 )−φ( M,λ   2 )]
 
     Then the interferograms could be written as
 
 I (λ 1 )= I   o1 {1+ V   1  cos [ω 1   t+φ   1 ]}
 
 I (λ 2 )= I   o2 {1+ V   2  cos [ω 2   t+φ   2 ]}
 
     Turning now to  FIG. 6   a , Light returning from the array and which contains both wavelengths is first split in a coupler  602  or other suitable means. One part containing both wavelengths) travels to detector  604 , whereas the second part propagates to an optical de-multiplexer  606  where the wavelengths are separated. Wavelength λ 2  is passed to detector  608 . 
       FIG. 6   b  shows the detail of detector  604  of  FIG. 6   a . Pulsed optical signals containing high frequency (80-100 MHz) fall on the photodetector  620  and are converted to electrical signals. The electrical signal is first dc blocked using a suitable high pass filter  622  e.g. 1 kHz cut-on using an analogue filter such as a Butterworth filter. The high pass signal is then squared in an analogue squater  624  using a high frequency balanced four-quadrant multiplier. This gives frequency components at 2ω 1 , 2ω 2 , (ω 1 +ω 2 ) and (ω 1 −ω 2 ) as follows:
 
[ I (λ 1 +λ 2 ) ac ] 2 =½( I   o1   V   1 ) 2 +½( I   o2   V   2 ) 2 +½( I   o1   V   1 ) 2  cos(2ω 1   t+φ   1 )+½( I   o2   V   2 ) 2  cos(2ω 2   t+φ   2 )+ I   o1   I   o2   V   1   V   2  cos [(ω 1 +ω 2 ) t +(φ 1 +φ 2 )]+ I   o1   I   o2   V   1   V   2  cos [(ω 1 −ω 2 ) t +(φ 1 −φ 2 )]
 
     The synthetic phase φ 1 −φ 2  is at the difference frequency (ω 1 −ω 2 ) and is obtained by low-pass filtering the signal after the squarer at  626 . 
     The resulting is pre-amplified at  628 , digitised by a high frequency ADC  630  and passed to a phase demodulator  632  which can operate in any well known fashion. 
     If we choose as an example f 1 =200 MHz (upshift), f 2 =200.04 MHz (upshift), and f 3 =110 MHz (upshift), then the carrier frequency associated with each interferogram becomes (f 1 −f 3 )=90 MHz and (f 2 −f 3 )=90.04 MHz. The precise values of f 1 , f 2  and f 3  are typically dictated by available acousto-optic modulator (AOM) frequencies, pulse transition edge and the final carrier frequency (f 1 −f 2 )=0.04 MHz. The latter is typically selected to accommodate the array design. 
       FIG. 7  shows the relationship between these frequencies and the analogue low pass filter  626 . In this case, the pulse repetition rate is 160 kHz. To maintain a pulse transition edge of about 10 ns, the low-pass filter is shown to have a cut-off of about 100 MHz, and to avoid interference from sum and double frequency components, filter rejection should preferably be at least −60 dB at 180 MHz. 
     To recover the ‘Normal’ phase information, which is to say the phase information at a single wavelength, the pulses retrieved from detector  608  (λ 2  having a carrier frequency 90.04 MHz as noted above) are sub-sampled by an analogue to digital converter (ADC) at a slower (but more usual pulse repetition) sampling frequency 160 kHz so that the carrier in the said signal is aliased back to (f 1 −f 2 )=40 kHz. The sub-sampled signal is then demodulated in a demodulator. The demodulated signal corresponds to φ 2 . The aliasing condition for typical operation is
 
{1−REM[( f   1   −f   3 )/ f   N   ]}×f   N =( f   1   −f   2 ).
 
where ‘REM’ is the remainder after division within the [ ] brackets and f N  is the Nyquist frequency. The Nyquist frequency here is 80 kHz.
 
     In the case discussed above, [(f 1 −f 3 )/f N ]=[90.04 MHz/80 kHz]=1125.5; the REM(1125.5)=0.5, so that {1−REM[(f 1 −f 3 )/f N ]}×f N =40 kHz, which is (f 1 −f 2 ). We could easily make (f 1 −f 3 )=90 MHz (upshift); (f 2 −f 3 )=90.nn MHz (upshift), and (f 1 −f 2 )=0.nn MHz so that pulse repetition rate is 4×0.nn MHz, where nn are any suitable decimal number combination. For example, if 0.nn=0.05, then the carrier frequency of the main signal is 50 kHz and the pulse repetition rate is 200 kHz. 
     Alternatively, the electrical signal from Detector  608  which is at 90.04 MHz could be down-converted by multiplying it with a 90 MHz signal and low pass filtering the result. The 90 MHz signal is itself the product of f 1  and f 3  followed by low pass filtering, or from a separate 90 MHz RF source. The down-converted signal is then demodulated as previously. 
       FIG. 8   a  shows a further embodiment for recovering the synthetic phase and involves the direct use of the optical outputs without mixing of the two wavelengths in the photodetector. Thus the mixing of the wavelengths is performed after photodetection, in the electrical domain as opposed to the arrangement of  FIG. 6   a  where mixing occurs optically prior to photodetection. Light returned from the array and emerging from an optical demultiplexer travels towards detector  800  which detects wavelength λ 1  and detector  802  detects wavelength λ 2 . If f 1 =200.07 MHz (λ 1 ) and f 2 =200.02 MHz (λ 2 ) and f 3 =110.00 MHz (λ 1  and λ 2 ), then the carrier frequencies are (f 1 −f 3 ) of 90.07 MHz at 807 and (f 2 −f 3 ) of 90.02 MHz at  809 . The electrical signal emerging from  800  and  802  are band-pass filtered in  804  and  806  respectively, where the centre frequency is nominally (f 1 −f 3 ) ˜90 MHz, with a bandwidth of about ±10 MHz. After band-pass filtering the signals are mixed in a high frequency analogue four-quadrant multiplier  808  and subsequently low-pass filtered in  810 . The cut-off of the low-pass filter is set so that the edge transitions of the pulses remain as received behind the photodetectors  800  and  802 , but less than the sum frequency 2(f 1 +f 2 −2f 3 ) of 180.09 MHz so that there is significant rejection at the sum frequency. For practical purposes the cut-off of filter  810  of this example would be about 100 MHz. The output signal behind the low-pass filter is at the down-shifted frequency of 50 kHz whereupon the pulse repetition rate is 200 kHz. The analogue signals are then digitised in  812  and demodulated in  814 .  FIG. 8   b  gives a typical frequency domain plan showing the input, difference and sum frequency components prior to, and post-mixing in relation to the low-pass filter. 
     In this way, embodiments of the present invention allow a transducer, or array of transducers to be interrogated to provide a synthetic phase output having reduced sensitivity to overscale, and a more conventional phase output. The outputs can be selected adaptively, such that the synthetic phase is only relied upon during an overscale condition. 
     It will be understood that the present invention has been described above purely by way of example, and modification of detail can be made within the scope of the invention. 
     Each feature disclosed in the description, and (where appropriate) the claims and drawings may be provided independently or in any appropriate combination.