Development of an Immunocapture-Based Polymeric Optical Fiber Sensor for Bacterial Detection in Water.

Conventional methods for pathogen detection in water rely on time-consuming enrichment steps followed by biochemical identification strategies, which require assay times ranging from 24 hours to a week. However, in recent years, significant efforts have been made to develop biosensing technologies enabling rapid and close-to-real-time detection of waterborne pathogens. In previous studies, we developed a plastic optical fiber (POF) immunosensor using an optoelectronic configuration consisting of a U-Shape probe connected to an LED and a photodetector. Bacterial detection was evaluated with the immunosensor immersed in a bacterial suspension in water with a known concentration. Here, we report on the sensitivity of a new optoelectronic configuration consisting of two POF U-shaped probes, one as the reference and the other as the immunosensor, for the detection of Escherichia coli. In addition, another methos of detection was tested where the sensors were calibrated in the air, before being immersed in a bacterial suspension and then read in the air. This modification improved sensor sensitivity and resulted in a faster detection time. After the immunocapture, the sensors were DAPI-stained and submitted to confocal microscopy. The histograms obtained confirmed that the responses of the immunosensors were due to the bacteria. This new sensor detected the presence of E. coli at 104 CFU/mL in less than 20 min. Currently, sub-20 min is faster than previous studies using fiber-optic based biosensors. We report on an inexpensive and faster detection technology when compared with conventional methods.

Optical high-voltage sensor based on fiber Bragg gratings and stacked piezoelectric actuators for a.c. measurements.

In this paper, we present the design and fabrication of a compact, modular optical high-voltage sensor (OHVS) based on fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) for a.c. distribution and transmission lines. The proposed OHVS is composed by a stack of piezoelectric transducers that transfer mechanical strain to a sensing FBG. A prototype was tested in the laboratory and showed a maximum linearity error of less than 3% of full-scale range (FSR) for input voltages up to ${14\,\,{\rm kV}_{\rm rms}}$14kVrms with a signal-to-noise ratio of 55 dB, allowing measurements with a resolution of less than 0.2% of FSR. Transient response of the developed OHVS was preliminarily investigated, and a response time of less than 1 ms was observed. The results obtained allow us to conclude that the developed OHVS may also be used for the detection of transient events.

Two-level and two-period modulation for closed-loop interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a modulation technique for closed-loop interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes that improves its scale factor control and allows for the construction of gyroscopes with optimized angle random walk. The proposed two-level and two-period modulation is composed of two intercalated periods of the square wave modulation, one with amplitude of ϕ rad and the other with amplitude of 2π-ϕ rad. As in the two-level modulation, the angular velocity is obtained from the difference of consecutive output levels. Modulation depth error is obtained from the difference of the mean levels of the output from two consecutive periods. The proposed technique eliminates the limitation of square wave modulation: inefficient scale factor control at low angular velocities. Additionally, it requires a slower analog-to-digital converter than four-level modulation.

Technique for suppressing the electronic offset drift of interferometric open-loop fiber optic gyroscopes.

A technique to eliminate the offset drift in the demodulator circuitry of open-loop interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes is presented. This technique employs a demodulation scheme that uses the area of the negative half-cycles of the output signal of a sinusoidally modulated gyroscope to obtain the angular velocity. We propose an electronic circuitry that periodically reverses the demodulator input, allowing for the acquisition of two samples of the gyroscope signal with the same magnitude and opposite polarities. The angular velocity is obtained from the subtraction of these two samples, suppressing the electronic offset. Experiments showed that the proposed method reduces the demodulator offset drift from 4.4 µV/°C to about 14 nV/°C, which is equivalent to a reduction, from 0.2 deg/h/°C to about 0.0006 deg/h/°C in the tested gyroscope. The proposed technique improved the bias stability of the tested gyroscope from 0.0162 to 0.0071 deg/h.