IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO.
2, FEBRUARY 2013
A Fiber Bragg Grating RMS Current Transducer
Based on the Magnetostriction Effect Using
a Terfenol-D Toroidal-Shaped Modulator
Alcides Oliveira Cremonezi, Elnatan C. Ferreira, Alcino José Biazon Filho, and José A. Siqueira Dias
Abstract— A new approach to the fabrication of robust and
low-cost fiber Bragg gratings optical current transducers using
a Terfenol-D magnetostrictive material is presented. Electro-
erosion is used to manufacture a magnetic core in a toroidal
shape, which results in a single piece robust mechanical design.
By applying mechanical compression to the toroidal sensor and
making its response very close to a quadratic function, it is
possible to calculate the rms value of the current directly
from the output of the sensor and eliminate the dc biasing
magnetic field used in all previous techniques. A new electronic
interrogation circuit technique, which allows for the measurement
of ac signals and keeps the dc operation point of the fiber Bragg
grating, is developed and successfully used in the prototype.
Experimental results measured in the developed optical current
transducer show that an error of ±0.6% is achieved for currents
over the 320–900 A range. When tested over the temperature
range of 25 °C–45 °C, a maximum error of ±2% is observed.
The developed system presents a fast transient response, and
needs only 34 ms to reach the steady state after a 150% amplitude
step increase is applied to current being measured.
Index Terms— Fiber Bragg gratings, magnetostriction effect,
optical current sensor, optical fiber sensor, Terfenol-D.
I. I NTRODUCTION
S INCE optical sensors are passive and immune to
electromagnetic interferences (EMI), they are well suited
for applications in electrically noisy environments, especially
in high voltage transmission lines. A significant number of
optical current sensors were developed based on the Faraday
effect, what results in high complex and expensive interroga-
tors [1], [2]. Optical sensors based on a fiber Bragg grating
(FBG) are much simpler and present an excellent alternative
due to the moderate prices [3]. These FBGs sensors are based
on a simple principle, which involves measuring the variation
of the center wavelength of the FBG (called Bragg shifts) with
an interrogator [4].
The association of FBGs with a magnetostrictive material
(Terfenol-D) has been used successfully in the development
Manuscript received November 8, 2011; revised March 27, 2012; accepted
October 15, 2012. Date of publication October 24, 2012; date of current
version January 14, 2013. The associate editor coordinating the review of this
paper and approving it for publication was Dr. V. R. Singh.
The authors are with the Department of Electronics and Microelectron-
ics, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Camp-
inas, Campinas 13083-820, Brazil (e-mail: alcides@demic.fee.unicamp.br;
elnatan@demic.fee.unicamp.br; abiazon@demic.fee.unicamp.br; siqueira@
demic.fee.unicamp.br).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2012.2226333
1530–437X/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE
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683
of moderate complexity optical current transducers capable
of measuring dc and ac currents [5]–[7], and this association
presents a great potential for applications in high voltage
power lines.
The aim of this work is to develop a low-cost and precise
optical current transducer capable of measuring the rms value
of ac currents in high voltage systems. The new concept
uses the same magnetostrictive material (Terfenol-D), but
it does not require a bias magnetic field to transform the
unipolar response of the Terfenol-D into a bipolar response,
simplifying the design of the transducer. It also employs
an electronic interrogation technique which eliminates the
temperature dependence of the FBG and can precisely measure
the ac Bragg shifts around an operating point, using only one
FBG and one optical circulator.
The developed transducer uses a FBG glued to a single
piece of Terfenol-D magnetostrictive material, prepared in a
toroidal shape. The designed system was tested with currents
in the 200–900 A range.
II. P RINCIPLE OF O PERATION
The core material chosen for the sensor was the Terfenol-D,
that has been widely explored due to its high strain sensitivity
(which is greater than any other commercially available smart
material [8], as well for its high speed response (in the
range of microseconds), making it adequate to measure 60 Hz
ac currents. Terfenol-D presents two well known character-
istics: a) magnetostriction, which is a unipolar phenomenon,
i.e., a positive strain is produced in the presence of positive or
negative magnetic fields; b) the strain output is non-linear,
approximately proportional to the square of the magnetic
field [9].
These properties, which have been considered problems for
the development of sensors, will be actually employed as
part of the principle of operation of the proposed transducer.
This new approach results in a simple, low-cost and precise
technique to implement a current transducer with capability
of reading rms values of ac currents, especially suited for
applications in high voltage transmission lines.
The material chosen for the sensor was the Terfenol-D
manufactured by Etrema [10]. It is known that the application
of bias compressive mechanical stress to the Terfenol-D
changes its response to the strain, and the measured strain
in this Terfenol-D material subjected to a varying magnetic
field, plotted as a function of the mechanical compression
684
1800
Magnetostriction Strain (ppm)
1400
0.1 MPa
1000
600
200
0
-320 -160
Applied Field (A/m x 103)
Fig. 1. Measured strain of an Etrema Terfenol-D sample as a function of
the magnetic field, when submitted to different compression loads.
load, is presented in Fig. 1. As it can be observed, both the
amount of hysteresis and the shape of the response depend
on the applied compression load. By choosing an appropriate
compression, it is possible to reduce the hysteresis and obtain
an almost perfect quadratic function, as shown in Fig. 1 for
a compression of 1.1 MPa.
Since the developed sensor will be used to measure rms
values of ac currents in power lines, assuming that the input
current in the sensor is in the usual form of I (t) = I0 si n(ωt),
to obtain the rms value of the input current it is necessary to
calculate:
  T2 1/2
1
Irms = I02 sin2 (ωt) . (1)
T2 − T1 T 1
In order to simplify the design and reduce the cost of the
sensor, one of the objectives was to operate the Terfenol-D
without the conventional dc biasing magnetic field used to turn
the unipolar operation into a bipolar operation. As a result, the
measured strain will be always positive, so the output signal
will be equal to |I (t)|.
If the compression applied to the Terfenol-D material is
such that the transfer function of the magnetic field versus
strain is as close as possible to a perfect quadratic function, the
measured strain will be |I (t)|2 , which is equal to I02 sin2 (ωt),
that is the expression required to calculate the rms value of
the input current.
Therefore, by measuring the strain with an analogue-to-
digital converter (ADC) at a high sampling rate during a fixed
amount of time (one cycle of the power line) and calculating
the square root of the sum of these values divided by the
time, the rms value of the ac input current will be available.
Since the strain measurement will be a discrete-time signal
available at the output of the ADC, the rms current is given by:
 1/2
1 
Irms = s(n) (2)
T2 − T1
where s(n) are the values of the n samples of the strain,
obtained during the time interval T2 − T1 . This expression
can be easily calculated using a simple microcontroller, but
in this experiment, since all data acquisition was realized
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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2013
0.3 MPa
0.6 MPa
1.1 MPa
0 160 320
Fig. 2. 3-D drawing of the compression ring, showing internal and
external slots.
using a LabView [11] program, the rms value of the current
was calculated inside the LabView code.
III. D ESIGN OF THE S ENSOR
Previous works with current sensors using Terfenol-D as
the base material were implemented using a Terfenol block
and some other magnetic material. An important milestone in
the development of Terfenol-D current transducers with fiber
optics interrogation was presented in [12], where the design
and fabrication of a sensor that presented a usable linear range
of 100–1000 A was demonstrated. The use of two materials
in the previous sensors was chosen probably because the
Terfenol-D is an extremely brittle material and very difficult to
be machined, but this led to a relatively complex and expensive
mechanical design.
Designing a single material toroidal core current transducer
is very interesting in what concerns cost, mechanical stability
and magnetic circuit characteristics, and the sensor developed
in this work uses a toroidal shaped disc of Terfenol-D as the
body of the sensor. The sensor’s core was prepared from a
Terfenol-D rod using a wire electro-erosion process, eliminat-
ing the costs and problems associated with the mechanical
machining of Terfenol-D.
The high mechanical compression, which is necessary to
make the response of the material to follow a quadratic law,
must be applied uniformly all around the body of the sensor to
avoid the presence of an undesired behavior caused by uneven
mechanical stress. To implement this uniform compression,
a metallic ring compressed by precision supper-alloy disc
springs [13] was designed. The metallic ring is applied around
the whole external perimeter of the Terfenol-D toroid.
Since the optical fiber must enter/leave the sensor housing
without significant bending and the FBG must be glued to the
outside of the Terfenol-D material, it is necessary to make a
lateral cut in the outer part of the ring, as shown in Fig. 2.
Thus, this area receives a compression only in the lower and
upper parts of the Terfenol-D toroid. In order to eliminate
the nonuniform compression along the rest of the toroid, an
internal slot was machined in the entire internal perimeter
of the ring, so that the Terfenol-D toroid receives the same
compression along its complete perimeter.
CREMONEZI et al.: A FIBER BRAGG GRATING RMS CURRENT TRANSDUCER 685

Stress intensity
Max.

Min.

Fig. 3. Computer simulation of the stress distribution along the

compression ring.

A computer simulation of the stress along the perimeter of

the external compression ring when tensioned by spring discs
was performed, assuming that the external side of the ring was Fig. 4. 3-D measurement performed on the Terfenol-D magnetic core.
free to move only in the direction of the compression force
applied. The objective of this simulation was to verify if the
applied compression force would be evenly distributed around Sensing
Terfenol-D
the Terfenol-D core. As can be seen in Fig. 3, the resulting FBG
Core
stress in the metallic ring is very uniform. The only part where
a small non-uniformity is noticed is near the area where the
TEC driver circuit DC Transimpedance
slot of the disc springs is located.
Amplifier
Finally, to assure that a perfect contact between the
Terfenol-D toroid and the metallic ring would be achieved,
the shape of the external diameter of the Terfenol-D toroid Output Signal
was measured, to check if the rod manufacturing process OPTC1
produces a cylindrical and uniform smooth surface. A 3D λFBG
dimensional measurement was performed, and the result, pre- AC Transimpedance
sented in Fig. 4, showed that the maximum deviation from Amplifier PD1 +V
a perfect circle was only 375 ppm (15 μm in a diameter of
40 mm), and an experimental result very close to the simulated
shall be obtained in the prototype. To avoid any interference TEC
with the magnetic circuit, the external compression ring was Thermoelectrical cooler
manufactured with stainless steel. λL
Laser diode
DFB LASER
IV. FBG I NTERROGATOR Ilaser
Laser driver
The developed FBG interrogator operates as an ac amplifier circuit
around a dc operating point. The input signal to the amplifier
is the ac variation of the center wavelength of the FBG Fig. 5. Block diagram of the interrogator.
glued to the Terfenol-D material. This variation is caused by
deformation of the magnetic material under a varying magnetic
field. The technique is based on a proposal of the stabilization for measuring the ac signal, while the other generates a signal
of the operating point of FBGs presented in [14], but with an used to control and stabilize the operation point of the FBG.
ingenious novel technique where only one optical circulator, A block diagram of the interrogator circuit is presented in
one FBG and one photodiode are required, resulting in a much Fig. 5. The light from a 1550.0 nm distributed feedback laser
simpler and low-cost interrogator. (DFB) is sent via an optical circulator O PT C1 to illuminate
In this novel technique, the light reflected from the sensing the sensing FBG. The reflected light from the sensing FBG is
FBG is sent to a single photodiode that drives simultaneously sent, via O PT C1 to the photodiode P D1 .
two transimpedance amplifiers which convert the light signal This photodiode is connected between the input of transim-
into a voltage signal. The first transimpedance amplifier is used pedance amplifiers A1 and A2 , as shown in Fig 6, where the

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686 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2013

C4
100 FBG profile

FBG Reflected Power [%]

R4
Operation point
R5 R6
C5 50

- C3 AC Output
A2
Input signal Output
PD1 + R3 (strain) Signal
0
Photodiode
C1
λ0 Wavelenght
R1
- R2 Fig. 7. Point of operation of the FBG with ac variation around the λ0
DC Output operation point.
A1
+ C2 +Vcc
C6
R8 R10
Q1
C7 R9 + D1 ITEC
Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the transimpedance amplifiers and photodiode. - R12
A4
R7 C5 A3 -
R13
D2 TEC
VREF +
From DC Q2
schematic of the amplifiers is presented. Since the input cur- transimpedance amplifier -Vee R11
rent of the OPA177 [15] op-amps used is typically 1.2 nA, it
is negligible when compared to the photodiode current (which
is in the order of 0.3 mA for the 1 mW laser output power Fig. 8. Analogue PID controller used to stabilize the FBG operation point.
used) and it is assumed that the photodiode current flows only
in the feedback impedances of both amplifiers. Amplifier A1
is a conventional transimpedance amplifier with a feedback variation of only 10 °C in the sensing FBG would cause a
resistor R1 , responsible for generating the DC signal which complete failure in the operation of the interrogator. Thus,
will be used to control and stabilize with temperature the a precise control of the operation point of the system is
operation point of the FBG. Capacitor C1 is added to the mandatory.
feedback path to overcompensate the circuit, reducing the To implement this control of the operation point, an ana-
bandwidth of the circuit and eliminating any stability problems logue PID controller was used to drive the DFB laser internal
that may appear in this configuration [16]. thermoelectric cooler. After the operation point is chosen,
The 60 Hz ac strain that appears in the FBG due to the dc output voltage of transimpedance amplifier A1 is
its modulation around the operation point caused by the measured, and this voltage is adjusted in a potentiometer
deformation of the Terfenol-D is very small (a few pm of and used as the set-point (V r e f ) for the PID controller.
variation in the Bragg center wavelength). This ac signal is The circuit of the PID controller shown in Fig. 8, composed
eliminated in the output of A1 by a low-pass filter composed of A3, R7, R8, R9, C5, C6, C7, receives the DC low-pass
of R2 − C2 . To measure the small ac strain, amplifier A2 uses filtered output of A1 as its input signal and drives the TEC
a T-network feedback, which results in an amplifier with high (the thermoelectric cooler of the laser), which can cool or
ac gain combined with a low dc gain. To remove any residual heat the semiconductor laser diode, maintaining a stable dc
dc component from the output of A2 , an ac coupling (C3 − R3 ) voltage at the output of A1 . If the output of A1 is stable, it
is used in its output. This scheme results in a transimpedance means that the FBG is illuminated by the laser at exactly the
amplifier which responds basically only to the ac light signal same wavelength λ0 .
created by the Terfenol-D mechanical modulation.
As shown in Fig. 7, the system is illuminated by a DFB V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
laser with a wavelength λ0 that is approximately centered A prototype of the proposed optical current transducer was
in the positive slope of the FGB profile. Since the detected constructed and tested in laboratory. A photograph of the final
Bragg shifts are proportional to the slope of the FBG profile, prototype is presented in Fig. 9, where the coil with 280 turns
this demodulation scheme leads to a high sensitivity detector. of 0.33 mm2 enamel wire used to apply the magnetic field in
However, any dc variation of the center FBG wavelength the sensor during the experimental tests is already installed.
would move the system away from its ideal operation point. A block diagram of the complete measurement setup is
For example, since the typical sensitivity to temperature of presented in Fig. 10. A DFB laser model FLD5F6CX-E33 [17]
a naked FBG is approximately 12 pm/°C, a temperature and a GAP100 photodiode [18] were used for the optical

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CREMONEZI et al.: A FIBER BRAGG GRATING RMS CURRENT TRANSDUCER 687

0.8

0.7 - 0.3 MPa

Measured AC output voltage [Vrms]

- 0.7 MPa
0.6 - 1.1 MPa
- 1.6 MPa
0.5 - 1.9 MPa

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1
Fig. 9. Photograph of the implemented optical current transducer.
0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Waveform Power Current [A]
Generator Amplifier
Fig. 11. Value of the rms output voltage of A2 as a function of the input
current for various applied load compressions.
PC USB Current

3
Temperature
DAQ
2
FBG
Strain
System 1
Isolator
Fan
Error [%]

0
Fig. 10. Block diagram of the measurement setup.

-1
parts. The compression was applied by using a serial/parallel
combination of the precision disc springs, and tests were
-2
performed with compressions loads values up to 1.9 MPa.
All data acquisition measurements and signal processing were - 0.3 Mpa
automated using a program in LabView. To generate a con- -3 - 1.6 MPa
trolled current in the coil, a setup with a PC, an Agilent
33220A waveform generator and a power amplifier built using
-4
the LM3886 integrated circuit [19] was used. 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
100 200 300
The PC computer running LabView was used to control,
via the USB port, the signal generator and also to receive
Current [A]
all the measured data (current in the coil, temperature of the Fig. 12. Calculated error of the transducer when the optimal compression
optical transducer and ac strain from the FBG) from a 14 bit load of 1.6 MPa is applied to the material.
DAQ from National Instruments [20]. The optical transducer
temperature was measured using an AD590 [21], which was
glued to the metallic ring.
close to a quadratic function, and the calculated rms values
from the measured sensor output presents an almost linear
A. Steady-State Measurements relationship with the input current.
The optical current transducer was tested over the A plot of the calculated deviation error from the ideal rms
180–900 A range, for several compressions applied to the value as a function of the input current is presented in Fig. 12,
metallic ring. In Fig. 11 it is shown the values of the rms strain for the optimal compression load (1.6 MPa) and for almost
signal calculated by the software with (2), using the measured no compression load (0.3 MPa) applied to the Terfenol-D
results of the output voltage of A2 . As it can be observed, core. Here it becomes clear the importance of the compression
when the adequate compression is applied to the Terfenol-D load, since the error is reduced approximately by 4 times
core (in this case about 1.6 MPa), its response becomes very when the optimal compression load compression is applied.

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688 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2013

3 of the interrogator, the current transducer prototype was tested

over a 15 °C temperature range to confirm that the stabilization
of the operation point was working properly. Since the glue
2
used in the FBG could be used up to 50 °C, the tests were
performed between room temperature and 45 °C, to allow for
1 a safety margin in the maximum temperature of the glue. A
constant current of 800 A was applied to the current transducer
Error [%]

and the rms strain of the output signal was measured and
0 calculated, as presented in section V-A. The percent error
deviation from the ideal response of the system is presented
in Fig. 13. As it can be observed, the interrogator operated
-1
correctly in the whole temperature range, and the observed
deviations from the ideal behavior are due to the behavior of
-2 the Terfenol-D when submitted to temperature changes.

-3
C. Transient Response Measurements
28 33 38 42 48 The optical current transducer was tested for abrupt current
Temperature [oC] changes, simulating a fault condition in a power system, to
see if the transducer can detect current surges in the power
Fig. 13. Temperature dependence. lines within a short period of time. To perform the test, the
sensor was in steady-state, driven by a constant current, and
a current increase step of 150% was applied to the coil (by
Imeas [250 A/div.]

programming the signal generator). The measured signals were

obtained with an oscilloscope, and the results are presented in
Fig. 14. As it is observed, after the transient is applied, there is
an overshoot in the detected output of the sensor. The output
Measured output
(rectified current)
signal takes less than 34 ms to settle down and reach the
new steady-state (less than two 60 Hz cycles). This behavior,
Iin [400 A/div.]

which is more than 30% faster than the values obtained in the
transducer presented in [12], indicates that both the one piece
mechanical design and the fast interrogation technique were
Input current important in achieving this performance.
∆t = 34 ms

Time: 10 ms/div.
Fig. 14. Transient response of the developed current transducer.
The maximum deviation measured across the 180–320 A
range was 1.2% and, in the 320–900 A region, the calculated
error was lower than 0.6%. This indicates that the applied
compression forced the response of the Terfenol-D core to be
very close to the desired quadratic function, showing that this
technique of using the Terfenol-D without a dc bias magnetic
field presents a great potential to the realization of low-cost
optical current transducers with FBG sensors.
It is worth to notice that the optimal compression point
has to be found through an experimental procedure. From
the results presented in Fig. 11, it is possible to see that the
compression load values of 1.1, 1.6, and 1.9 MPa result in
very similar curves, and the best result can only be found by
measuring the deviation error from the ideal result.
B. Temperature Measurements
Since it was known that a variation of only 10 °C in the
sensing FBG would cause a complete failure in the operation
VI. C ONCLUSION
The proposal of a Terfenol-D based current transducer
using optical detection with fiber Bragg grating was designed,
implemented and tested in laboratory. The novel technique
of using a toroidal shaped magntostrictive material without
the conventional dc bias magnetic field to turn the unipolar
operation into a bipolar operation showed that it is possible
to implement a simple, robust, and low-cost optical current
transducer. The developed technique is especially suited for
high voltage applications, where the introduction of a dc
magnetic bias field can be very difficult to be implemented.
The developed interrogation circuit presents a very high
sensitivity (since it operates on the slope of the FBG profile),
and is capable of compensating for the dc variations of
the operating point of the FBG sensing device caused by
temperature changes in the transducer. The high sensitivity
and high temperature stability were obtained with a very
simple design which requires only one optical circulator and
one FBG.
The prototype was tested in the 180–900 A range and
presented an excellent linearity, especially in the 320–900 A
current range. An error of 1.2% error was measured in the
180–320 operation range whilst in the 320–900 A range
the calculated error was lower than 0.6%. The transient

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CREMONEZI et al.: A FIBER BRAGG GRATING RMS CURRENT TRANSDUCER
response of the current transducer showed that the system takes
less than two 60 Hz cycles to achieve the new steady-state
after a 150% step change is applied in the input of the
transducer. This response is faster than the previously reported
values, and it is conjectured that this was achieved due to
the new mechanical design, where only one solid piece of
Terfenol-D was used in the magnetostrictive core. The algo-
rithm for calculating the rms value of the output signal can
be performed using only one 60 Hz cycle, indicating that
the sensor can be effectively used not only in steady-state
measurements, but it can be a powerful tool for detecting and
measuring fault conditions in a power transmission line.
The transducer was tested over a 15 °C temperature range
and it was observed that the interrogation technique worked
perfectly, maintaining the proper operation point of the FBG.
The measured error of the output measured strain presented
an error of only 2% in this temperature range, for a constant
current of 800 A applied to the transducer. Further investiga-
tions of the variation with temperature will be conducted to
observe the repeatability of this behavior, in order to check
for the feasibility of compensating for this error using a
digital calibration look-up table. The microcontroller’s would
store the error’ s curve so that the correct values of the rms
current under measurement could be easily calculated by the
microcontroller.
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Alcides Oliveira Cremonezi was born in Campinas,
Brazil, on June 19, 1978. He received the B.S.
degree in physics and the M.S. degree in electrical
engineering and from the University of Campinas,
Campoinas, in 2007 and 2011, respectively, and the
M.B.A. degree in entrepreneurship and innovation
from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and the
BABSON College School of Business, in 2009. He
is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering with the Department of Electronics and
Microelectronics, University of Campinas.
He joined GKN Sinter Metals, Hortolândia, Brazil, in 1999, where he
worked for 13 years in the development of technologies for powder metal
soft magnetics materials. His current research interests include electronics
instrumentation and fiber optics sensors.
Elnatan C. Ferreira was born in Fortaleza, Brazil,
on April 25, 1955. He received the the B.S. degree in
physics from the University of Ceará, Ceará, Brazil,
in 1981, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electri-
cal engineering from the University of Campinas,
UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil, in 1984 and 1991,
respectively.
He joined the School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, FEEC/UNICAMP, as a Teaching Assis-
tant, in 1985, where he is currently an Associate
Professor with the Department of Electronics and
Microelectronics. His current research interests include electronics instrumen-
tation, signal processing, and fiber optic gyroscopes and fiber optic sensors.
Alcino José Biazon Filho was born in São Paulo,
Brazil, on November 23, 1971. He received the B.S.
degree in electrical engineering from the Itajubá
Federal School of Engineering, Itajubá, Brazil, in
1995, and the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering
from the University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil,
in 2000, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering with the Department
of Electronics and Microelectronics.
He was with Campanhia e Cervejaria Brahma,
Fortaleza, Brazil, from 1996 to 1998. From 2001
to 2007, he was with the Semiconductor Products Sector of FreeScale
Semiconductors, Jaguariuna, Brazil. His current research interests include
electronics circuits and fiber optics sensors.
690 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2013

José A. Siqueira Dias was born in Santos, Brazil,

on October 15, 1954. He received the B.S, M.S.,
and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Campinas,
UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil, in 1979, 1982, and
1985, respectively, all in electrical engineering.
He was with the Laboratório de Eletrônica
e Dispositivos-LED/UNICAMP, from 1980 to 1982,
in the area of solid state device processing and semi-
conductor devices modelling. In 1983, he joined the
the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
FEEC/UNICAMP, where he is currently the Head
of the Department of Electronics and Microelectronics. His current research
interests include analog integrated circuit design, electronics instrumentation,
fiber optics sensors, and agricultural soil moisture sensors.

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