Opto-electronic Interfaces

The main purpose of such interfaces is to produce light out of electrical current, feed that light into one end of an optical fiber, capture the light output from the opposite end of that fiber and convert it back to electrical current. If the optical fiber is that of a fiber optic load sensor the latter current will be a measure for the load applied to that sensor.
Of course really useful opto-electronic interfaces are not restricted to this basic function. They also do some pre-processing that requires to cope with things specific to the sensor and therefore not interesting for the rest of the measuring system. Examples for such functions are:

• Provide load-dependent (not light-dependent) output signals
• Establish load-dependent trigger-thresholds and derive digital de-bounced trigger output signals
• Perform auto-adjustment and related functions
• Sensor supervisory functions
• Self-testing functions