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Publikation

Electronic Sensor Nodes Powered Over Fibre Optimized for Ultra-Precise Temperature Measurements in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Machines

Christoph Budelmann; Jeannine Ziegler (Hrsg.)
Joint International Symposium on System-Integrated Intelligence (SysInt-2012), New Challenges for Product and Production Engineering, June 27-29, Hannover, Germany, 2012.

Zusammenfassung

Sensorial materials are fundamental for new intelligent products. Implementing sensorial functions and local data processing capabilities into the materials will lead to intelligent products that can “feel” and “judge” and therefore interact with other systems, human users and the environment, contributing to our efforts towards energy savings, safety and security, mobility, and health. To realize this vision, the DFKI, with other partners at the University of Bremen and national industrial partners, is developing intelligent sensor nodes connected by optical fibres in a large-scale sensor network. In contrast to other wired or wireless sensor networks, both a high-speed data link and power supply are realized via an optical fibre. This makes batteries or other local energy sources for the sensor nodes superfluous and the network immune against strong electro-magnetic influences, which are typical for harsh industrial environments or some medical applications like magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, the lack of a local energy source reduces significantly the sensor node’s size and makes it completely maintenance-free which is a key aspect for the integration into new materials. The paper briefly describes the general idea of ultra-low power electronic sensor nodes and the joint transmission of data and power over optical fibres as well as its realization. As an example, a first industrial application is presented, making use of the system’s electro-magnetic immunity for highly precise multi-channel temperature and acceleration measurements in magnetic resonance imaging machines.