Patent ID: 6895132

Claim:
A fiber-optic sensor system comprising: a first sensor grating and a second sensor grating; a first optical splitter and a second optical splitter, each said splitter having a source port, a filter port, and a sensor port, wherein optical energy applied to said sensor port is divided between said source port and said filter port, and wherein optical energy applied to said source port travels to said sensor port, said first optical splitter sensor port coupled to said first sensor grating, and said second optical splitter sensor port coupled to said second sensor grating; a wavelength discriminator having a first splitter input and a second splitter input, a first detector output, and a second detector output, wherein optical energy applied to said first splitter input divides between said first detector output and said second detector output in a manner related to the wavelength of said applied optical energy, and where the sum of said first detector output and said second detector remains constant over the range of said applied wavelengths; said wavelength discriminator first splitter input coupled to said first splitter filter port, said wavelength discriminator second splitter input coupled to said second splitter filter port; a first detector and a second detector, each of said detectors accepting an optical input and producing an electrical output, said first detector coupled to said wavelength discriminator first detector output, and said second detector coupled to said wavelength discriminator second detector output; a first optical source and a second optical source, each said source having an enable input and producing an optical output when said enable input is active, said first optical source output coupled to said first splitter source port, and said second optical source output coupled to said second splitter source port; a controller having a first enable output coupled to said first optical source, a second enable output coupled to said second optical source, a first input coupled to said first detector, and a second input coupled to said second detector, said controller producing said first enable and said second enable during mutually exclusive time intervals, and recording said first detector and said second detector responses.