Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs), from the beginning of their market presence, have played a constantly increasing role in all these applications where the combination of compact size, energy efficiency, high reliability, and high-scale and low-cost manufacturing is of concern. Typically addressed application fields so far cover mainly optical communication and data communication, however, with observable growth of interest for sensing applications. Among the particularly interesting PICs are those dedicated to fiber-optic sensors interrogation, combining the advantages of integrated photonics and fiber-optic photonics. In general, there are two main approaches to designing the photonic interrogators – the first is based on a broadband light source and integrated spectrometer/monochromator e.g. in the form of an arrayed waveguide grating with photodiodes monitoring each output port, while the second makes use of a tunable laser and a single photodiode on the detecting side. It seems that the first option is more efficient in terms of costs, simplicity of the design, energy saving, and reliability as well.

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