Tailored draw tower fiber Bragg gratings for various sensing applications

The idea of fabricating fiber Bragg gratings during the drawing process of an optical fiber dates back almost 20 years. The application of a transverse holographic writing method on a fiber draw tower offers a promising solution for a highly effective Bragg grating production. Because of the high technology requirements it took more than 10 years to develop the method into a reliable process. The improvements in the technical development during the last five years enable today a cost efficient industrial production of draw tower grating (DTG®) arrays. In this paper we report about new possibilities of the improved process with respect to the grating type (type I gratings, type II gratings), the coating type (2ORMOCER®, metals) and the fiber diameter (125μm, 80μm and below). Furthermore, we present an example for the application of draw tower fiber Bragg gratings in sensing technologies for medical applications.