Hollow core MOEMS Bragg grating microphone for distributed and remote sensing

We present the design and fabrication of a completely new high sensitivity all-optical frequency modulated MOEMS microphone for distributed and remote sensing applications. Due to immunity to electromagnetic interference, no parasitic capacitances and easy wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) combined with the low transmission loss of modern optical fibers [1], frequency modulated optical sensors are ideal for remote and distributed sensing. While several all-optical and high sensitivity MOEMS pressure sensors are found in literature, these sensors are typically based on amplitude (intensity) modulation. Amplitude modulation is inherently sensitive to transmission loss and requires a unique transmission line for each sensor. Though fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) are based on frequency modulation the relatively large dimensions of optical fibers and their low refractive index modulation makes them most suitable for high stress sensing, e.g. in structural health monitoring. The MOEMS microphone presented here has a calculated static pressure sensitivity approximately 10⁴ times larger than conventional FBGs.