Photonic-electronic hybrid distributed acoustic sensing for broadband detection systems

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Sensor Technology
• Acoustic Sensing
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) systems face intrinsic noise limitations.
• Existing methods for improving DAS performance often require expensive hardware or complex algorithms.
• There is a need for cost-effective and efficient acoustic sensing solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an economical photonic-electronic hybrid acoustic sensing system.
• To enhance signal quality in acoustic sensing by suppressing uncorrelated noise.
• To achieve broadband acoustic detection compatible with distributed monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Integration of a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system with a flexible piezoelectric fiber sensor.
• Cross-correlation of synchronized optical and electrical signals to reinforce common acoustic components.
• Utilizing a lightweight processing strategy for signal enhancement.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated wide-band acoustic detection from 170 Hz to 10 kHz.
• Achieved average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) enhancements of 6.7 dB (photonic) and 3.8 dB (electronic).
• Showcased the feasibility of co-deploying long-length piezoelectric fiber sensors with sensing fibers.

Conclusions:

• The proposed hybrid system offers a practical solution for high-quality, broadband acoustic sensing.
• The cross-correlation technique effectively suppresses sensor noise without costly modifications.
• The system is deployment-compatible, making it suitable for advanced distributed monitoring applications.