Patent ID: 8218916

Claim:
A sensing system comprising: a) a light source; b) a spectral analyzer; and c) at least one sensor including i) an enclosure defining a chamber, ii) a fiber optic segment extending from outside said enclosure into said chamber, and iii) a sequence of optical processing elements, operably disposed within said chamber and operably coupled to said fiber optic segment, comprising a fiber Bragg grating, a polarizer and a first side hole fiber operably disposed downstream from said fiber Bragg grating, and a mirror operably disposed downstream from said polarizer and said first side hole fiber; wherein said light source is arranged to direct light to said at least one sensor and said spectral analyzer is arranged to detect light reflected back from said at least one sensor, wherein said fiber Bragg grating is adapted to substantially reflect light within a predetermined first spectral envelope while transmitting the remainder of the optical spectrum to said polarizer and said first side hole fiber, wherein a characteristic wavelength of a peak within said predetermined first spectral envelope is highly sensitive to temperature and relatively weakly sensitive to pressure in the environment of said at least one sensor, and wherein the spectral analyzer operates in a first mode to identify the characteristic wavelength of the peak within said predetermined first spectral envelope.