Proceedings of the IEEE
International Conference on Information and Automation
Ningbo, China, August 2016
Design of pulse pressure sensor based on fiber Bragg grating
and its application in the measurement of pulse condition
information *
Shu-juan Li, Fa-xiang Zhang, Jia-sheng Ni and Chang Wang*
Shandong Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing Technology
Jinan 250014, China
Laser Research Institute of Shandong Academy of Sciences
Jinan 250014, China
sdlshj@126.com
Abstract - A highly sensitive contact type fiber Bragg grating
dynamic pressure sensor was designed to achieve the detection of
pulse wave information in this paper. The sensitivity and
frequency range of the sensor were analyzed by using the finite
element method. A sensing system based on the fiber Bragg
grating pressure sensor and interferometric wavelength
demodulating based on phase generated carrier (PGC) was
proposed to detect the pulse wave information. The frequency
response characteristics of the sensor were studied
experimentally, and pulse signal sample were collected. Test
results show that the sensor has a flat response below 600 Hz,
with a resolution better than 1.4×10-6N/√Hz, which enable a
High fidelity reduction of pulse information.
Index Terms - Fiber Bragg grating; Point-contact; Dynamic
pressure sensors; Pulse information.
I. INTRODUCTION
Fiber grating sensor (FBG) sensors have the properties of
anti-electromagnetic interference, corrosion resistance,
electrical insulation, simple structure, small size, high
sensitivity and other advantages. It has been widely used in
chemical, electric power, aerospace, medicine, civil
engineering and other fields. Currently many types of FBG
sensors [1-7] were extended to measure pressure, temperature,
angular velocity, acceleration, sound field and other physical
parameters, such as Sun Tingting and others have designed a
lateral pressure sensor based on the tilted fiber Bragg grating
(TFBG) and elastomeric material [5]; Zhang Faxiang presented
a micro geophone based on the hinged highly sensitive high-
bandwidth fiber Bragg grating[6]; In the paper[7], Ma
Xiaochuan and others designed a stable high sensitivity fiber
grating temperature sensor. Besides the abovementioned,
some kind of medical fiber optic temperature sensors, fiber
optic blood flow meter, pressure meter, optical fiber body
have arisen in bio-medical field [8-11]. In order to address the
strong magnetic field detecting temperature problem, Yu
Qian, etc. developed a bare fiber Bragg grating temperature
sensor using for real-time monitoring body temperature in the
magnetic environment [8].
*
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61307101 and 61205083), the National Natural Science Foundation of
Shandong province (Nos. ZR2013FL029 and ZR2012FQ002), and the science and technology development plan of Shandong province（No.2014GGC01032）.
200
978-1-5090-4102-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
In the medical field, pulse diagnosis has been widely
adopted in clinical as a noninvasive means and methods. pulse
diagnosis diagnose mainly depends on pulse information
changes, here, the pulse information refers to pulsating
pressure, speed information on radial artery Cun, Guan, Chi
after the left and right palm. It contains lots of messages about
the body physiological diversifications. Pulse information is
the most critical information for the pulse diagnosis process,
only accurately measurement of the pulse, the correct clinical
diagnosis can be reached. At present, the piezoelectric,
hydraulic and other electronic sensors were mainly put to use
for the measurement of the pulse information [12].
Pulse condition information measurement is not only the
dynamic measurement of pulse information, but also need to
measure the static pressure that the pulse information in
different layers where the pulse information located, and all of
these have more higher requirement about static pressure
sensor sensitivity and dynamic pressure measurement range.
Furthermore, with the development of traditional Chinese
medicine pulse diagnosis theory, increasingly importance has
been attached to the physical information especially about the
pulse pressure and wave velocity. Paper [13] has studied the
pulse diagnosis of the pressure pulsation and flow pulsation.
Measurements of such information require high sensitivity,
wide band sensors to ensure and guarantee the accurate
capture of pulse characteristics. FBG sensors possess the
advantages of high sensitivity, large dynamic range, and are
particularly suitable for precise measurement of pulse
information.
This paper designed a kind of high sensitivity contact
point dynamic pressure sensor based on fiber Bragg grating,
and use it for acquiring the pulse signal on the position of
human’s Cun, Guan, Chi in radial artery. We also designed a
interferometric demodulation system based on PGC which can
realize the pulse condition messages detection, and provide a
reliable technology for the study of the theory of pulse. This
article will analysis sensitivity and frequency range of the
sensor using the finite element software and the sensing
system. The experimental results show that the sensor system
can restore the original pulse information effectively and high- Through the finite element method, we simulate the fiber
fidelity. grating axial strain under the unit pressure. Finite element
model used in the simulation is shown in figure 2.The
II. SENSOR DESIGN
dimension a, b ,c, d, h and l is marked in figure 1(a) and q1,
Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) pressure sensor translates the q2 is marked in figure1(b) . The structural parameters are
pressure signal into strain, which may induce a shift in listed in Table I. By the formula (1), the sensitivity of the
reflected wavelength of the FBG. According to the sensor can be obtained.
wavelength modulation principle, we designed a contact
dynamic pressure FBG sensor. The basic structure of the
proposed FBG pressure sensor as shown in Figure 1, mainly
includes contact rod, L-beam, short beam, and the FBG. The
FBG is fixed in the pre-stretching way between the L-beams
and side shell. When measuring pulse information, The FBG
pressure sensor is pressed in the wrist, and supported by
radius. The contact rod of the sensor is precisely on the radial
artery. When the contact rod of the sensor is subjected to the
pulse pressure of the radial artery, the pressure is passed to the
FBG through L-shaped beams, and then the FBG reflected
wavelength changes. The pulse signal of radial artery can be Fig.2 Finite Element Model
obtained by measuring wavelength variations finally.
TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF THE SENSOR
Parameter Value(mm)
a 5
b 12
c 8
d 2
l 22
h 5
q1 4
(a) q2 4
pe 0.22
λB 1550

(b)
Fig.1 Touch point fiber Bragg grating dynamic pressure sensor structure：
（a）Section elevation drawing （b）Profile of the vertical

Where, S is defined as changes of the fiber grating

wavelength under unit pressure. Assuming an unit pressure T,
the axial strain of the fiber grating εf, the sensitivity of the (a)
sensor [14] can be expressed as
S = Δλ / T = (1 − pe )ε f λB . (1)

Where, ∆λ is the wavelength variation amount of fiber

grating sensor by unit pressure, pe is the elastic fiber-optic
coefficient, and λB is the center wavelength of the fiber
grating.

201
 Fig.4 Demodulation system structure
(b)
Although interferometric demodulation can achieve very
Fig.3 the sensor deformation simulation under static pressure
high resolution, the optical fiber interferometer has the
We simulate the deformation of sensor under unit static
vulnerability to external environment and temperature drift.
pressure the results shown in Figure 3 (a). The axial strain of
This can result in a higher noise of low frequency in
the fiber grating is 0.58×10-3, and displacement amplitude of
demodulation results. As the frequency of the pulse signal is
the touch rod is 0.09mm. By the formula (1), we can know
as lower as 1 Hz, and even is less than 1 Hz, to solve this
that the sensor sensitivity is about 700 pm / N. For dynamic
problem, we design a very low high-pass filter to filter out low
pressure changes, a finite element simulation result is shown
frequency noise interference in the following section.
in Figure 3(b). The resonant frequency of the sensor is higher
The filter function is designed as below:
than 1000 Hz. The pressure sensor has a relatively flat
frequency response characteristic below 600 Hz. α 1 + z −1
H n ( z) = 1 − ∗ . (4)
2 1 − (1 − α ) z −1
III. DEMODULATION SYSTEM The Labview software was used to do filter simulation test
with the initialization for parameter of α=0.003. The
In order to achieve the physical information measurement
frequency response curve of the filter with multi-stage is
of weak pulse waveform signals, particularly for the pressure
shown in Fig.5. It can be seen from the curve that the filter
wave and velocity wave, etc., we need to use high-resolution
can perfectly filter out the noise below 0.2Hz.
dynamic wavelength demodulation system to restore the
wavelength changes of the fiber grating pressure sensor.
Interferometric wavelength demodulation technology has the
advantages of high resolution and extensive frequency range.
Therefore, this paper proposed an optimal design system
based on the phase generated carrier (PGC) demodulation.
Our designed demodulation system can approach the
simulated results and get better wavelength resolution than
1×10-3 pm/√H and frequency range of 2000 Hz. With the
sensor sensitivity of 700 pm / N, the novel designed
demodulation system can achieve dynamic pressure resolution
of 1.4×10-6 N/√Hz. Demodulation system structure is shown
in Figure 4.
I = I 0 (1 + η cos Δφ ) . (2) Fig.5 The simulation of filter frequency response curve

Where Δφ is the phase difference between the two arms of

the interferometer, η is the visibility of interference fringe, IV. TEST RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
then Δφ can be expressed as For the purpose of testing the sensitivity of the pressure
2π nd sensor, here the weights were used to apply pressure to it, and
Δφ = Δλ . (3)
λB2 then the test result was shown in Fig 6.
Where, nd is the optical path difference of the optical fiber
interferometer arms. Thus, the wavelength shifts of fiber
grating converted to a phase change via interferometer. The
high-resolution dynamic FBG wavelength detection can be
achieved using high-resolution dynamic phase detection
algorithm.

202

Fig.6 The curve of pressure sensitivity of the Sensor
Seen from Fig.6, we can obviously see that the sensitivity
of the sensor is about 750pm/N with a nice property of
linearity and it will be used to the pulse information
acquisition.
Fig. 7 The pulse sample information
The three curves of Fig.7 is the pulse information using
the interferometric demodulation, the black curve is the
collected sample pulse information of the arteriosclerosis
patient's, so the A3 zone did not generate a steeple and a rush
up like the other pulse diagram. Usually it is distinguished by
age, the older the person the less sharp A3 region [15]; the more
serious of arteriosclerosis, the less slope of A3 zone.
According to our acquired data, we found that the better
physical condition, the stronger cardiac ejection ability, the
A3 area will steeper, such as the blue pulse information in Fig.
7.
In Fig. 8, the dark line is the pulse information before a
meal; the red is the pulse information after a meal. From Fig.
8, it can be seen that the filling of the stomach caused the
pulse waveform changes.
Filling of the stomach is first revealed symptom in the
course of objective study of Chinese medicine features. If the
203
subjects eat a lot, their stomach will be in the status of filling,
then the pulse waveform changes too. According to the Kings’
Pulse theory [16], the image position of the stomach should be
in the position B1.
Fig. 8 Comparison of the pulse information before and after a meal
Seen from Fig.7 and Fig.8, different pulse information at
the different layers can be acquired by fiber grating contact
pressure sensor, and the measured pulse information can
accurately reflect the physiological characteristics information
of samples.
V. CONCLUSIONS
A contact-type dynamic pressure sensor was designed
based on fiber grating for pulse information acquiring, the
pressure sensitivity of the sensor can approach to 750 pm/N,
and the frequency range is 0-600Hz. Based on technology of
PGC interferometric wavelength demodulation, the pulse
waveform information is detected. We designed a low
frequency high-pass filter and achieved a 0.5Hz-600Hz
frequency range. The dynamic pressure measurement system
has a resolution better than 1.4×10-6 N/√Hz By collecting the
pulse signal information, we can see that the pressure sensor
can quantitatively reflect the state of pressure and the acquired
pulse waveform contains physiological characteristics of the
sample. This indicates that the sensor have a potential and
prospect future in quantitative collection, pulse information
analysis, and clinical application areas.
REFERENCES
[1] J. Wang, G. Peng, Zh. Hu, et al. Design and analysis of a high sensitivity
FBG accelerometer based on local strain amplification. IEEE Sensor
Journal, 2015, 15(10):5442-5449.
[2] Q. Wu, Y. Okabe, J. Wo. Fiber Sensor Based on Interferometer and Bragg
Grating for Multiparameter Detection. Photonics Technology Letters,
2015, 27(12): 1345-1348.
[3] Mainak Basu, S. K. Ghorai. Strain Sensing in Fiber-Reinforced Polymer
Laminates Using Embedded Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor. Fiber and
Integrated Optics, 2014,33(4): 279-298
[4] C. Leitão,P. Antunes, J. Pinto,et al. Optical fiber sensors for central
arterial pressure monitoring. Optical and Quantum Electronics, 2016,
48:218.
[5] T. Sun, Sh. Pei, J. Li, et al. A transverse strain sensor based on tilted fiber
Bragg grating. Journal of Optoelectronics•Laser, 2015,26(10):1854-1859.
[6] F. Zhang, X. Zhang, L. Wang, Ch. Wang. Study on FBG micro-seismic
geophone with high sensitivity and broad bandwidth. Journal of
Optoelectronics•Laser. 2014, 25(6):1086-1091.
[7] X. Ma, Zh. Zhou, A. Liu, X. Wang. A high-sensitivity and stable fiber
Bragg grating temperature sensor. Journal of Optoelectronics•Laser.
2013,24(7):1245-1250
[8] Q. Yu, H. Chen, Ch. Zhao, et al. Medical fiber Bragg grating temperature
sensors: manufacture and temperature characteristic investigations.
Journal of China University of Metrology, 2010, 21(4):319-322.
[9] S. Umesh, S. Raju, A. Girish, A. Sundarrajan. Blood pressure evaluation
using sphygmomanometry assisted by arterial pulse waveform detection
by fiber Bragg grating pulse device. Journal of biomedical optics, 2013,
18(6):067010-067010.
[10]L. Zhang. Novel shape detection systems based on FBG sensor net for
intelligent endoscope. Shanghai University, 2005.
[11]S.Sun, H. Chen, G. Yin. The basic principle of optical fiber sensor and it's
application in medicine. Chinese Journal of Medical Physics, 2008,
25(5):846-850.
[12]L. Xuan, J. Xiong, Zh. Sun, J.Zhao. Design and implementation of
wireless pulse diagnosis instrument system based on pulse condition
frequency analysis. Microcomputer & Its Applications, 2012, 31(5):89-91.
[13]W. Jin. Kings'Pulse Theory. Jinan, Shandong science and technology
publishing Press, 2000.
[14]W.W. Morey, G. Meltz, and W.H. Glenn. Fiber optic Bragg grating
sensors[C]. in Fiber Optic and Laser Sensors VII, 1989,98-107.
[15]G.Nie, Z. Fang. Measurement and analysis of human pulse with different
age segment [J].Shanghai journal of biomedical engineering, 2007,
28(2):76-79.
[16]W. Jin, S. Sang, Ch. Xin. The pressure pulsation and flow pulsation in
pulse diagnosis, Clinical Journal of Chinese Medicine, 2014, 6(6):33-34.

204