Abstract
The purpose of this thesis was to research, design, develop and test a novel
instrument for detecting fiber optic loop continuity and spatially locating fiber optic breaches. The work is for an active seal system called ReflectoActive� Seals whose purpose is to provide real time container tamper indication.
A Field Programmable Gate Array was used to implement a loop continuity
detector and a spatial breach locator based on a high acquisition speed single photon counting optical time domain reflectometer. Communication and other control features were added in order to create a usable instrument that met defined requirements. A host graphical user interface was developed to illustrate system use and performance.
The resulting device meets performance specifications by exhibiting a dynamic
range of 27dB and a spatial resolution of 1.5 ft. The communication scheme used
expands installation options and allows the device to communicate to a central host via existing Local Area Networks and/or the Internet.