Wed, 23 November, 2022
On Monday 14 November 2022, ETS and ICCS, partners from the Horizon 2020-funded SEER project, successfully performed the integration of the Process Monitoring and Optimisation Control (PMOC) system with the innovative Temperature Photonic Integrated Chip (PIC) sensors at the premises of ICCS.
The experiments were a validation of the PMOC system developed for the purposes of SEER, working along with the FAZT I4G interrogator by Optics11 and the packaged photonic temperature sensors, while the temperature was increased up to 180 degrees Celsius at the ICCS testbed.
The PMOC system could interface real time with the interrogator, employ calibration curves and display the correct temperature as also validated by PT100 and RTD thermal sensors.
After setting the correct temperature ramp, the testbed, which was optimised to accept the packaged sensors (as opposed to the more ellaborate testbed required for bare PICs), was set to go to 180 degrees, while the measured temeperature from the photonic sensor was compared with the commercial temperature sensors on the testbed.
The PMOC system will also allow for Refractive index and pressure to be measured as soon as the relevant PIC packaged sensors are available within the project. Furthermore, the finalised SEER MPOC system will be able to perform real-time temperature control and process optimisation using the novel SEER PIC sensors and embeded process control and optimisation algorithms.
In addition, an automated method of producing calibration curves for each sensor was tested and used, which will be used within the project to allow for a faster and more consistent calibration of the new generation of photonic sensors, espcially when it comes to factor in the temperature effect on the refractive index and pressure measurements.
Overall, the experiment was a successful demonstration of the PMOC system with the novel photonic sensors, an important milestone in the SEER project.
The work is also accepted to be presented as a poster at SPIE Photonics West 2023 in San Fransisco.
The SEER project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871875.