[A high sensitivity micro-ring humidity sensor based on U-shaped waveguide coupled single micro-ring structure].

ABSTRACT

The paper proposes a novel high sensitivity humidity sensor based on a U-shaped waveguide-coupled single micro-ring, Polyimide is used as the wet material, the refractive index of humidity-sensing part changes as relative humidity changes, thus leading to a obvious peak drift. The transfer function of the structure is derived basing on transfer matrix method and the paper mainly discusses the influence on the output spectrum with different humidity-sensing parts. Through the theoretical simulation of Matlab, the whole structure of U-shaped waveguide coupled single micro-ring is proved to be the best humidity-sensing part. The free spectral range (FSR) will be doubled compared to the traditional single micro ring structure while the length between the two coupling points of the U-shaped waveguide is an integer multiple of circumference of the micro-ring. When the relative humidity of external environment changes from 10% RH to 100% RH, the output spectrum appears a obvious drift from 0.027 to 0.191 microm and the sensitivity reaches up to 0.0018 microm/% RH. Compared to FBG humidity sensor with high sensitivity, the sensitivity in this article is increased by 10 to 100 times, achieving a high sensitivity in the sense of humidity when the wide range of filter frequency selection is taken into account.