Flexible photonic skins shape up for sensing
Thin and flexible polymer sheets that combine the latest fibre-optic sensing technology with optoelectronics could soon be measuring the stresses and strains placed on structures ranging from bridges and dams to helicopter blades. That's the goal of a new EU project called Phosfos, which is pioneering photonic skins for optical sensing.
"We want to show that we can integrate fibre sensors with all of the necessary driving and read-out optoelectronics in a flexible substrate," project coordinator Francis Berghmans of Vrije University in Brussels, Belgium, told optics.org. "We want to integrate photonic crystal fibres made of silica or plastic with optical sources and detectors in a polymer skin whilst keeping everything flexible."
One of the key aspects of the three year Phosfos project will be to thin down existing wafer-scale optical sources and detectors so...