Fabry-Perot cavity for curvature measurement in a medical needle

Abstract

A reflective fiber optic sensor based on a Fabry-Perot cavity made by splicing two sections of multimode fiber is demonstrated to measure the needle curvature. The sensing structure was incorporated into a medical needle and characterized for curvature and temperature measurements. The maximum sensitivity of -0.152dB/m-1 was obtained to the curvature measurements, with a resolution of 0.089m-1. When subjected to temperature, the sensing head presented a low temperature sensitivity, which resulted in a small cross-sensitivity.