Chromatic dispersion measurement for optical components
AssigneeLucent Technologies Inc.
InventorsKwang S. Kim, Liyan Zhang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A chromatic dispersion measurement technique for optical components using baseband amplitude response of RF modulated optical signals and a dispersion reference in providing a measurement both of the magnitude of the dispersion and whether the dispersion is positive or negative.
Claims21
Apparatus for use in measuring the chromatic dispersion of an optical component under test comprising:
- a tunable optical source;
- a modulator having a first input coupled to an output of said source;
- a source of swept RF signals coupled to a second input of said modulator;
- an optical switch having input and output terminals;
- a dispersion reference coupled between said input terminal of said switch and an output of said modulator;
- and
- a signal analyzer having a pair of input terminals respectively coupled to said swept RF signal source and to said output terminal of said optical switch;
- with said optical switch being controllable to couple a modulated signal from said modulator through said dispersion reference directly to said signal analyzer or by way of said optical component under test.
Apparatus for use in measuring the chromatic dispersion of an optical component under test comprising:
- an optical fiber of known chromatic dispersion;
- a signal analyzer;
- and
- an optical switch coupling an amplitude modulated RF signal through said fiber directly to said analyzer or by way of said optical component under test.
A method of measuring chromatic dispersion of optical components in which the dispersion is obtainable directly from the baseband amplitude response of RF modulated optical signals coupled to a signal analyzer through a reference fiber of known chromatic dispersion, and through said fiber and an optical component under test, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.