Increasing the Information Capacity of a Fiber-Optic Multi-Sensor Converter of Binary Mechanical Signals Into Electrical Signals

The design and principle of operation of a multi-sensor converter of binary mechanical signals into electrical signals based on a partitioned fiber-optic digital-to-analog converter with parallel structure are considered. The digital-to-analog converter is made from a set of simple and fiber-optic digital-to-analog sections adaptable to streamlined production (three- and five-bit). The advantages of the optical layout of the proposed converter on metrological and energy characteristics, in comparison with unary multi-bit converters, are substantiated. It is shown that as a result of an increase in the number of digital-to-analog sections, it is possible to increase by a large factor the information capacity of the multi-sensor converter without tightening the requirements for its manufacturing design and component base. A mathematical model of the proposed converter has been developed that reflects the features of functioning under conditions of time-sequenced conversion of the input mechanical code vectors of the separate fiber-optic sections into electrical analogs, and generating a resultant output code vector. The developed mathematical model can be used at the design phase for converters of binary mechanical signals, in order to obtain extensive and deep information on the engineering prospects of the future product, without resorting to expensive physical experiment.