Temperature change is one of key factors which should be taken into account in logistics during transportation or storage of many types of goods. In this study, a passive UHF RFID-enabled sensor system for elevated temperature (above 58°C) detection has been demonstrated. This system consists of an RFID reader and disposable temperature sensor comprising an UHF antenna, chip and temperature sensitive unit. The UHF antenna was designed and simulated in an IE3D software. The properties of the system were examined depending on the temperature level, type of package which contains the studied objects and the type of antenna substrate.

A compact temperature measuring device using a weakly coupled multi-core fibre in the Michelson interferometer structure is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The device is manufactured by an easy and simple splicing approach which consists of a multi-core fibre segment and an in-fibre coupler. In-fibre coupler is made of a cascaded single-mode fibre and multi-core fibre balls. It enhances the interference phenomenon of light energy between the central core and the outer cores of a multi-core fibre. The sensor shows a high quality fringe visibility of about 14–18 dB in the wavelength spectrum. Multi-core structure presents multi-path interferences and exhibits a maximum temperature sensitivity of 70.6 pm/°C in the range of 20–90°C with an insensitive response to the refractive index in the range of 1.334 to 1.354. The device has the advantages of compact size, easy manufacturing, and it solves cross-sensitivity between temperature and refractive index making it an authentic real-time temperature monitoring solution.

This paper presents a method of using a sensor with uniform Bragg grating with appropriately generated zone chirp. The presented method can be used for measuring two physical quantities, namely strain and temperature. By providing the same temperature sensitivity and different sensitivity to strain of two parts of a sensor, and experimental measurement of qualities of the proposed system and its calibration (experimental determination of sensitivity), verification of the results obtained from laboratory tests and the possibility of its practical implementation has been confirmed. The sensor grating was placed in such a way that its half was in the zone of a variable value of axial strain caused by changes of the cross-section of the sample. The other half, however, was in the zone of a constant cross-section of the sample and of constant value of strain, caused by the force stretching the sample. The obtained errors of non-linearity of processing characteristics for measuring strain and temperature of the proposed system were 2.7% and 1.5% respectively, while coefficients of sensitivity to strain and temperature were 0.77 x 10-6 m/e and 4.13 x 10-12 m/K respectively. The maximum differences between the values obtained from the indirect measurement and the set values were 110 μe for strain and 3.8°C for temperature, for a strain of 2500 μe and a temperature of 40°C.

The Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) based temperature optical sensor has been designed and demonstrated. FBGs have been modelled and fabricated so as to convert the Bragg wavelength shift into the intensity domain. The main experimental setup consists of a filtering FBG and two scanning FBGs, respectively, left and right scanning FBG, whereby scanning FBGs are symmetrically located on the slopes of the filtering FBG. Such an approach allows for the modulation of power for the propagating optical signal depending on the ambient temperature at the scanning FBG location. A positive or negative change of power is determined by the spectral response of the FBG. Experimental research of the scanning FBGs’ sensitivities emphasized that the key issue is the filtering FBG. A different level of sensitivity could be achieved due to the spectral characteristic of the filtering FBG. Omitting advanced and high-cost devices, the FBG-based temperature sensor is presented. The FBG-based sensor setup could yield resolution of 1°C for the range of temperature 0.5°C to 52.5°C. The experimental study has been performed as a base for an easy-placed sensor system to monitor external parameters in real environment.