Patent ID: 7027672

Claim:
A fiber optic force sensor for sensing a force exerted upon an optical fiber, comprising: a fiber Bragg grating comprising an optical fiber having a fiber optical axis and a Bragg grating being formed in a portion of the optical fiber and having a grating optical axis parallel to the fiber optical axis, wherein the Bragg grating has a predetermined optical transmittance and reflectance, and a plurality of stacked layers, wherein at least that portion of the optical fiber comprising the Bragg grating is embedded between a lower layer arrangement comprising at least one lower layer of the plurality of stacked layers and an upper layer arrangement comprising at least one upper layer of the plurality of stacked layers, such that a force exerted upon the optical fiber in a predetermined direction of force results in a variation of the predetermined optical transmittance and reflectance of the Bragg grating, wherein each layer is made of a composite material comprising a plurality of elongated fibers being arranged in parallel within each respective layer.