attocube’s SENSORICS team is devoted to the development of cutting-edge sensor solutions for the most challenging applications in research and industry. The innovative optical displacement sensors of the FPS and IDS series* surpass the performance of other presently available devices in terms of precision, speed, and compactness. The patented fiber-based, interferometric measurement principle offers unrivalled accuracy and stability, while the compact design enables strikingly simple adjustment even in spatially confined setups. Fiber-based sensor heads enable the operation in extreme environments, such as ultra high vacuum, cryogenic temperatures, or even hard radiation.

* FPS (Fabry-Pérot Sensor) | IDS (Industrial Displacement Sensor)

With its USB interfacing and advanced measurement software, the FPS system is the perfect choice for contactless, ultra-high precision displacement measurements with immediate data inspection. Typical fields of applications range from quality assurance to R&D.

The IDS and FPS can be operated with different sensor heads:
ultra compact heads for the most confined spaces or alternative designs where priority is given to easy alignment or to the compatibility with various target materials (glass, aluminum, ceramic, etc.).

The FPS & IDS sensors are compatible with a variety of targets, target materials, and technical surfaces
(such as drive shafts, end mills etc.). Most frequently, plane mirrors are being used in constrained (uniaxial) or xy-measurement applications (bi-axial).

Fabry-Pérot Interferometer

Our FPS and IDS Sensor Systems are based on a low-finesse fiber-based Fabry-Pérot Interferometer. A great advantage of this technology over other displacement sensing techniques is their electronic-free sensor heads. The physical dimension of the sensor head is reduced to the millimeter range. This miniaturization makes the sensor ultra-compact and also compatible with extreme environments such as ultra high vacuum and low temperature.
The fiber-based design allows flexible alignment, thus making multi-axis measurements and large distances of fiber length (even covering kilometer long distances) an easy task.

Environmental Compensation Unit (ECU)

The ECU provides a fully automated refractive index compensation for contactless interferometric measurements at ambient conditions. Variations in air pressure, temperature, and humidity are recorded and used to automatically compensate for changes in the refractive index.

Focusing Sensor Head

The focusing sensor heads D1.2/F20 (sensor head diameter of 1.2 mm with a focal length of 20 mm), D4/F17, M12/F40, and D12/F2.8 are suitable to measure on a wide range of target materials as well as target surface qualities with low, medium, or high surface reflectivity. For example, the focusing sensor heads make it possible to measure on a BK7 glass object with a reflectivity of only 4 %. The sensor head M15.5/F40 includes a flexure structure to adjust the beam path angle with ±1°.

Collimating Sensor Head

The sensor head M12/C7.6 (sensor head with a M12 metric thread and a beam diameter of 7.6 mm) is suited with a collimating optics type especially designed for the use with retroreflectors. It is optimized to measure over longer distances.

attocube’s laser interferometer is suitable for a broad field of applications. Since each application case has its own constraints and interfaces, the real benefits of the IDS appear when it is used under real conditions.

attocube’s interferometers IDS and FPS have been tested by the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB). The accuracy of the interferometers has been confirmed at various pressure, humidity and temperature conditions over several days, thus also confirming the high performance and reliability of attocube’s ECU (environmental compensation unit).