Manufacturing technology for flexible optical sensing foils

This paper presents the development of an integration technology that offers a breakthrough solution for the industrial manufacturing of flexible smart materials with optical sensing features. Subsequently, it aims the development of a flexible substrate, or foil, in which optical waveguides and sensing elements are integrated in line during the manufacturing process of the substrate itself. This artificial and flexible optical sensing foil can then be applied to regular or irregular surfaces, enabling a quasi-distributed strain map. Fabrication, using industrial processes, and characterization of a polymeric foil able to sense, gather and send sensitive information for remote analysis is explored. The propose smart material uses fiber Bragg grating sensors embedded in standard laminated polymeric sheets used in different industries, as automotive or aeronautic. The definition of the whole integration process as well as the PVC paste custom formulation for better integration results is described. The presented optical sensor incorporated in the polymeric foil is fully functional with high sensitivity, 0.6 pm/¿strain, measuring deformation, up to 1.2 mm.