Research on High-Precision PGC Demodulation Method for Fabry-Perot Sensors Based on Shifted Sampling Pre-Calibration

To address the issues of quadrature component attenuation and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) degradation caused by carrier phase delay in Phase-Generated Carrier (PGC) demodulation, this paper proposes a phase delay compensation method based on sampling-point shift pre-calibration. By establishing a discrete phase offset model, we derive the mathematical relationship between sampling point shift and carrier cycle duration, and introduce a compensation mechanism that adjusts the starting point of the sampling sequence to achieve carrier phase pre-alignment. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that this method restricts the residual phase error to within Δθmax = πf0/fs, thereby fundamentally avoiding the denominator-zero problem inherent in traditional compensation algorithms when θ approaches 45°. Experimental validation using an Extrinsic Fabry–Perot Interferometric (EFPI) ultrasonic sensor shows that, at a sampling rate of 10 MS/s, the proposed pre-alignment algorithm improves the minimum demodulation SNR by 35 dB and reduces phase fluctuation error to 2% of that of conventional methods. Notably, in 1100 consecutive measurements, the proposed method eliminates demodulation failures at critical phase points (e.g., π/4, π/2), which are commonly problematic in traditional techniques. By performing phase pre-compensation at the signal acquisition level, this method significantly enhances the long-term measurement stability of interferometric fiber-optic sensors in complex environments while maintaining the existing PGC demodulation architecture.