Silixa produces the world’s highest performance distributed temperature sensor, ULTIMA™. The ULTIMA offers the best temperature resolution from 0.01° C, a sampling resolution from 12.5cm and a measurement time from 1s. Multiple channels (up to 8 channels) can be addressed from a single unit.
The ULTIMA DTS long range unit (35 km) is available for use with either multimode (MM) or singlemode fibre (SM).
The ULTIMA DTS short range unit (2Km -5Km) has an enhanced spatial resolution from 25 cm.
There is a performance trade-off between temperature resolution, spatial resolution, measurement time and fibre length. The spatial resolution and averaging times are user defined within the ULTIMA DTS software, and may be varied by the operator if required.
All units can be optimised for a measurement window within the range of
-196°C to +600°C.
in more detail…
The ULTIMA illuminates the sensing fibre with a series of sub-nanosecond duration pulses. As the pulses propagate down the fibre, a small amount of light is backscattered towards the laser source. The majority of the backscatter, Rayleigh light, is at the same optical wavelength as the laser and is not temperature sensitive. However, a small proportion of the light is scattered by the Raman process and is temperature dependent. By recording the backscattered Raman light as a function of time, the temperature at all points along the fibre can be determined.
There are many proprietary technical advances in the ULTIMA which enable it to leapfrog the performance of existing DTS systems. The key breakthrough is in maintaining a fine temperature resolution and class-leading measurement stability while operating with the extremely low light levels and microwave electronics required for a 25cm spatial resolution.