Application of fourier analysis to the laser based interferometric strain/displacement gage

The laser based interferometric Strain/Displacement Gage (ISDG) measures the in-plane surface deformation between two small reflecting surface markers. When illuminated with a coherent beam of light, the reflected beams from the two markers form an interference pattern, and monitoring the shift of the fringe pattern allows strain in the gage section of a specimen to be directly measured. A minimum on the fringe pattern can be isolated and tracked as the test proceeds, but this technique utilizes only a small part of the optical signal and often requires a complex programming scheme. This paper presents the application of Fourier transform and phase shifting techniques to the use of the ISDG during microsample tensile testing. The Fourier transform samples the entire fringe pattern and greatly improves the optical signal to noise ratio, and the phase shifting fringe pattern analysis has proven to be more robust and less affected by speckle or optical noise than fringe pattern minimum tracking. This results in the ability to measure larger deformations with a system resolution of ∼5 microstrain and an uncertainty of ±15.5 microstrain. An example involving the microsample tensile testing of a MEMS related LIGA Ni specimen is included to demonstrate the utility of these new techniques.