Parametric study of a polymer-coated fibre-optic humidity sensor

A relative humidity sensor based on polymer-coated optical fibre Bragg gratings is presented. This fully functional sensor has response time and resolution comparable to the current capacitive relative humidity (RH) sensors, but with greater applicability. Numerical and experimental methods are used to determine the effects of coating thickness and fibre diameter on the response time and sensitivity of Bragg gratings coated with Pyralin. Transient results indicate that coating thicknesses of less than 4 mu m are needed to achieve a response time of 5 s, competitive with commercial capacitive RH sensors. Using thin coatings of similar to 2 mu m, for a short response time, sensors with reduced fibre diameter were fabricated and tested under steady-state, transient and saturated conditions. By chemical etching from 125 to 20 mu m, the sensitivity increased by a factor of 7. Such an increase in sensitivity allows for the resolution and response time of the Pyralin-coated sensor to be comparable to commercial capacitive RH sensors. These characteristics, in addition to the sensor's rapid recovery from saturation in liquid water, indicate good potential for use of this sensor design in applications where electronic RH sensors are not suitable.