OPTIMIZATION OF LARGE-SCALE FIBER SENSOR ARRAYS INCORPORATING MULTIPLE OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS - PART I - SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO

We report on optimizing the signal-to-noise ratio (Sr(FR) of large-sca le fiber sensor arrays employing erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) t elemetry with respect to the number of sensors per rung, the number of amplifiers per array, and the coupling ratio between the fiber buses and the rungs, Broad optimum regions are found, providing design flexi bility to minimize pump power requirements, Simulations predict that 3 00 sensors can be multiplexed on a fiber pair while maintaining a high sensitivity (1 mu rad/root Hz) for all sensors with a moderate input pump power (<1 W).