FIBER OPTIC SMART STRUCTURES

Fiber optic sensor technology has experienced tremendous growth since its early beginnings in the 1970's with early laboratory demonstration s of fiber optic gyros and acoustic sensors and the introduction of th e first commercial intensity and spectrally based sensors. These early efforts were followed by a tremendous growth of interest in the 1980' s when the number of workers in the field increased from perhaps a few hundred to thousands. The result was the introduction in the 1990's o f the first mass produced fiber optic sensors that are being used to s upport navigation and medical applications. The number of fiber optic sensor products can be expected to grow tremendously in the years to c ome as rapid progress continues to be made in the related optoelectron ic and communication fields. This paper provides an overview of some o f the technologies being used to support fiber optic sensor developmen t and how they are being applied.