Optical pressure and temperature sensors for aerospace applications

This paper gives a brief overview of requirements within the aerospace market sector for which optical sensors are of potential benefit, and goes on to describe sensors currently under development at Lucas Electrical and Electronic Systems which are primarily intended to meet some of these requirements. These sensors, based on the combination of silicon micromachining and optical sensing technologies, are sufficiently robust to provide the capability of directly measuring on‐engine parameters such as pressure and temperature. In association with FADEC‐mounted interface units, to which the sensor heads are coupled via optical fibre links, the sensors have the potential to provide measurement data for a number of aero‐engine control requirements.