9/15/2018

OPTICAL
FIBER
TRANSMISSION
MEDIA
Source:
Advanced Electronic Communication System,
Tomasi, Wayne

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
■ Define optical communications
■ Present an overview of the history of optical fibers and optical fiber communications
■ Compare the advantages and disadvantages of optical fibers over metallic cables
■ Define electromagnetic frequency and wavelength spectrum
■ Describe several types of optical fiber construction
■ Explain the physics of light and the following terms: velocity of propagation, refraction,
refractive index, critical
angle, acceptance angle, acceptance cone, and numerical aperture
■ Describe how light waves propagate through an optical fiber cable
■ Define modes of propagation and index profile
■ Describe the three types of optical fiber configurations: single-mode step index,
multimode step index, and multimode
graded index
■ Describe the various losses incurred in optical fiber cables
■ Define light source and optical power
■ Describe the following light sources: light-emitting diodes and injection diodes
■ Describe the following light detectors: PIN diodes and avalanche photodiodes
■ Describe the operation of a laser
■ Explain how to calculate a link budget for an optical fiber system
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Introduction
• optical communications system is one that uses light as the carrier of information
• optical fiber communications systems use glass or plastic fiber cables to “contain”
the light waves and guide them in a manner similar to the way electromagnetic
waves are guided through a metallic transmission medium.
• Light frequencies used in optical fiber communications systems are between
• 1 × 1014 Hz and 4 × 1014 Hz (100,000 GHz to 400,000 GHz).

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HISTORY OF OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATIONS

• In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell experimented with an apparatus he called a photophone.

• Transmission of light waves for any useful distance through Earth’s atmosphere is impractical
because water vapor, oxygen, and particulates in the air absorb and attenuate the signals at
light frequencies.
• In 1930, J. L. Baird, an English scientist, and C. W. Hansell, a scientist from the United States,
were granted patents for scanning and transmitting television images through uncoated fiber
cables.
• German scientist named H. Lamm successfully transmitted images through a single glass
fiber.
• In 1951, A. C. S. van Heel of Holland and H. H. Hopkins and N. S. Kapany of England
experimented with light transmission through bundles of fibers. Their studies led to the
development of the flexible fiberscope, which is used extensively in the medical field.
• It was Kapany who coined the term “fiber optics” in 1956.

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HISTORY OF OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATIONS

• In 1958, Charles H. Townes, an American, and Arthur L. Schawlow, a Canadian, wrote a paper
describing how it was possible to use stimulated emission for amplifying light waves (laser) as
well as microwaves (maser).
• Theodore H. Maiman, a scientist with Hughes Aircraft Company, built the first optical maser.
• The laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) was invented in 1960.
• The invention of the laser greatly accelerated research efforts in fiber-optic communications,
although it was not until 1967 that K. C. Kao and G. A. Bockham of the Standard
Telecommunications Laboratory in England proposed a new communications medium using
cladded fiber cables.

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HISTORY OF OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATIONS

• The fiber cables available in the 1960s were extremely lossy (more than 1000 dB/km), which
limited optical transmissions to short distances.
• In 1970, Kapron, Keck, and Maurer of Corning Glass Works in Corning, New York, developed
an optical fiber with losses less than 2 dB/km. That was the “big” breakthrough needed to
permit practical fiber optics communications systems.
• Since 1970, fiber optics technology has grown exponentially. Recently, Bell Laboratories
successfully transmitted 1 billion bps through a fiber cable for 600 miles without a regenerator.
• By the late 1980s, losses in optical fibers were reduced to as low as 0.16 dB/km, and in 1988
NEC Corporation set a new long-haul transmission record by transmitting 10 gigabytes per
second over 80.1 kilometers of optical fiber.
• Also in 1988, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) published the Synchronous
Optical Network (SONET).

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OPTICAL FIBERS VERSUS METALLIC CABLE FACILITIES

Advantages of Optical Fiber Cables

• 1. Wider bandwidth and greater information capacity.

• Optical fibers are available with bandwidths up to several thousand gigahertz. The primary
electrical constants (resistance, inductance, and capacitance) in metallic cables cause them
to act like low-pass filters, which limit their transmission frequencies, bandwidth, bit rate, and
information-carrying capacity.

• 2. Immunity to crosstalk
• fiber cables are not surrounded by a changing magnetic field, which is the primary cause of
crosstalk between metallic conductors located physically close to each other.

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OPTICAL FIBERS VERSUS METALLIC CABLE FACILITIES

Advantages of Optical Fiber Cables

3. Immunity to static interference.

• Because optical fiber cables are nonconductors of electrical current, they are immune to
static noise due to electromagnetic interference (EMI) caused by lightning, electric motors,
relays, fluorescent lights, and other electrical noise sources (most of which are man-made)

• 4. Environmental immunity.
• Optical cables also operate over a wider temperature range and are less affected by
corrosive liquids and gases.

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OPTICAL FIBERS VERSUS METALLIC CABLE FACILITIES

Advantages of Optical Fiber Cables

5. Safety and convenience

• no electrical currents or voltages associated with them, smaller and much more lightweight
and compact, more flexible, easier to work with, require less storage space, cheaper to
transport, and easier to install and maintain

• 6. Lower transmission loss.

• Optical fibers are currently being manufactured with as little as a few-tenths-of-a-decibel loss
per kilometer.

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OPTICAL FIBERS VERSUS METALLIC CABLE FACILITIES

Advantages of Optical Fiber Cables

7. Security.
• Virtually impossible to tap

• 8. Durability and reliability.

• last longer
• 9. Economics.
• The cost of optical fiber cables is approximately the same as metallic cables. Fiber cables
have less loss and require fewer repeaters, which equates to lower installation and overall
system costs and improved reliability.

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OPTICAL FIBERS VERSUS METALLIC CABLE FACILITIES

Disadvantages of Optical Fiber Cables

1. Interfacing costs.
• they must be connected to standard electronic facilities, which often require expensive
interfaces.
• 2. Strength
• This can be improved by coating the fiber with standard Kevlar and a protective jacket of PVC. In
addition, glass fiber is much more fragile than copper wire, making fiber less attractive where
hardware portability is required.
• 3. Remote electrical power
• 4. Optical fiber cables are more susceptible to losses introduced by bending the cable.
• 5. Specialized tools, equipment, and training

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ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM

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BLOCK DIAGRAM OF
AN OPTICAL FIBER
COMMUNICATIONS
SYSTEM

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Optical Fiber Construction

The actual fiber portion of an optical

cable is generally considered to include
both the fiber
core and its cladding

The coating also helps protect the fiber

from moisture, which reduces the
possibility of the occurrence of a
detrimental phenomenon called stress
corrosion (sometimes called static
fatigue) caused by high humidity

Materials commonly used for the buffer jacket include

steel, fiberglass, plastic, flame-retardant polyvinyl chloride
(FR-PVC), Kevlar yarn, and paper.

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• There are three essential types of optical fibers commonly used today:

1. Plastic core and cladding

2. Glass core with plastic cladding (called PCS fiber [plastic-clad silica])

3. Glass core and glass cladding (called SCS [silica-clad silica])

*plastic fibers have higher attenuation characteristics and do not propagate light as efficiently as glass

Fibers with glass cores have less attenuation than plastic fibers, with PCS being slightly better
than SCS.

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Fiber optic cable configurations: (a) loose tube construction; (b) constrained fiber; (c) multiple
strands; (d) telephone cable; (e) plastic-silica cable
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LIGHT PROPAGATION: The Physics of Light

In 1860, James Clerk Maxwell theorized that electromagnetic radiation contained a series of oscillating waves
comprised of an electric and a magnetic field in quadrature (at 90° angles).

However, in 1905, Albert Einstein and Max Planck showed that when light is emitted or absorbed, it behaves like
an electromagnetic wave and also like a particle, called a photon, which possesses energy proportional to its
frequency. This theory is known as Planck’s law.

The energy of the photon is equal to the difference between the energy of the two energy levels.
The process of decaying from one energy level to another energy level is called spontaneous decay or
spontaneous emission.

The process of moving from one energy level to another is called absorption

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LIGHT PROPAGATION: Optical Power

Light intensity is a rather complex concept that can be expressed in either photometric or radiometric terms.

Photometry is the science of measuring only light waves that are visible to the human eye.

Radiometry, on the other hand, measures light throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
In photometric terms, light intensity is generally described in terms of luminous flux density and measured in
lumens per unit area

Optical power

Optical power is sometimes called radiant flux (), which is equivalent to joules per second and is the same
power that is measured electrically or thermally in watts
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Velocity of Propagation

the light ray is not bent; rather, it changes direction at the interface.

The normal is simply an imaginary line drawn perpendicular to the interface of the two materials at the point of incidence.
Refraction of light: (a) light refraction; (b) prismatic refraction

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Snell’s law.

How a light ray reacts when it meets the interface of two transmissive materials that have different indexes of refraction
can be explained with Snell’s law.

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Snell’s law.

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Snell’s law.

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Critical Angle.

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Critical Angle.

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Acceptance angle

is called the acceptance angle or acceptance cone half-

angle.

Defines the maximum angle in which external light rays

may strike the air/glass interface and still propagate down
the fiber

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Numerical aperture (NA)

Numerical aperture is used to describe the light-gathering or light-collecting ability of an optical fiber (i.e., the ability to
couple light into the cable from an external source).

The larger the magnitude of the numerical aperture, the greater the amount of external light the fiber will accept.

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Note that the critical angle is defined as a minimum value and that the acceptance angle is defined as a
maximum value

(a) Acceptance angle; (b) acceptance cone

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OPTICAL FIBER CONFIGURATIONS

How the light propagates depends on the mode of propagation and the index profile of the fiber.

Mode of Propagation

In fiber optics terminology, the word

mode
simply means path. If there is only one
path
for light rays to take down a cable, it
is
called single mode.

If there is more than one path,

it is called multimode.

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Mode of Propagation

Mathematically, the number of modes possible for a given cable

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Acceptance angle
The index profile of an optical fiber is a graphical representation of the magnitude of the refractive index
across the fiber.

There are two basic types of index

profiles: step and graded index.

A step-index fiber has a central core

with a uniform refractive index

In the graded-index fiber, it can be see

that there is no cladding, and the
refractive index of the core is
nonuniform; it is highest in the center
of the core and decreases gradually
with distance toward the outer edge

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OPTICAL FIBER CLASSIFICATIONS

Core index profiles:

(a) single-mode step index;
(b) multimode step index;
(c) multimode graded index

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Single-Mode Step-Index Optical Fiber

Single-mode step-index fibers are the dominant fibers used in today’s telecommunications and data
networking industries.

Single-mode step-index fibers: (a) air cladding

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Single-Mode Step-Index Optical Fiber

Single-mode step-index fibers: (b) glass cladding

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Multimode Step-Index Optical Fiber

The light rays that strike the core/cladding interface at an angle greater than the critical angle (ray A) are
propagated down the core in a zigzag fashion, continuously reflecting off the interface boundary

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Multimode graded-index fiber

Essentially, there are no outstanding advantages or disadvantages of this type of fiber.

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Single-mode step-index fiber

Disadvantages include the following:

Advantages
1. Because the central core is very small, it is difficult to
1. Minimum dispersion
couple light into and out of this type of fiber. The
source-to-fiber aperture is the smallest of all the fiber
2. Because of the high accuracy in
types.
reproducing transmitted pulses at the
receive end, wider bandwidths and
2. Again, because of the small central core, a highly
higher information transmission rates
directive light source, such as a laser, is required to
(bps) are possible with single-mode
couple light into a single-mode step-index fiber.
step-index fibers than with the other
types of fibers.
3. Single-mode step-index fibers are expensive and
difficult to manufacture.

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Multimode graded-index fiber

Disadvantages include the following:
Advantages include the following: 1. Light rays take many different paths down the fiber,
which results in large differences in propagation times.
1. Multimode step-index fibers are relatively Because of this, rays traveling down this type of fiber have
inexpensive and simple to manufacture. a tendency to spread out. Consequently, a pulse of light
propagating down a multimode step-index fiber is
2. It is easier to couple light into and out of distorted more than with the other types of fibers.
multimode step-index fibers because they
have a relatively large source-to-fiber 2. The bandwidths and rate of information transfer rates
aperture possible with this type of cable are less than that possible
with the other types of fiber cables.

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LOSSES IN OPTICAL FIBER CABLES

Power loss is often called attenuation and results in a reduction in the power of the light wave as it travels
down the cable

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The optical power in watts measured at a given distance from a power

source

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The predominant losses in optical fiber cables are the following:

• Absorption loss
• Material, or Rayleigh, scattering losses
• Chromatic, or wavelength, dispersion
• Radiation losses
• Modal dispersion
• Coupling losses

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Absorption Losses
Absorption losses in optical fibers is analogous to power dissipation in copper cables; impurities in the fiber
absorb the light and convert it to heat.

The ultrapure glass used to manufacture optical fibers is approximately 99.9999% pure.

Still, absorption losses between 1 dB/km and 1000 dB/km are typical.

Essentially, there are three factors that contribute to the absorption losses in optical fibers:
ultraviolet absorption,
infrared absorption,
and ion resonance absorption.

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Ultraviolet absorption

Ultraviolet absorption is caused by valence electrons in the silica

material from which fibers are manufactured. Light ionizes the
valence electrons into conduction. The ionization is equivalent to a
loss in the total light field and, consequently, contributes to the
transmission losses of the fiber.

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Infrared absorption

Infrared absorption is a result of photons of light that are

absorbed by the atoms of the glass core molecules. The
absorbed photons are converted to random mechanical
vibrations typical of heating.

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Ion resonance absorption

Ion resonance absorption is caused by OH- ions in the material. The

source of the OH ions is water molecules that have been trapped in the
glass during the manufacturing process. Iron, copper, and chromium
molecules also cause ion absorption.

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Material, or Rayleigh, Scattering Losses

During manufacturing, glass is drawn into long fibers of very small

diameter. During this process, the glass is in a plastic state (not liquid
and not solid). The tension applied to the glass causes the cooling glass
to develop permanent submicroscopic irregularities. When light rays
propagating down a fiber strike one of these impurities, they are
diffracted. Diffraction causes the light to disperse or spread out in many
directions. Some of the diffracted light continues down the fiber, and
some of it escapes through the cladding. The light rays that escape
represent a loss in light power. This is called Rayleigh scattering loss.

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Chromatic, or Wavelength, Dispersion

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emit light containing many wavelengths. Each

wavelength within the composite light signal travels at a different velocity when
propagating through glass. Consequently, light rays that are simultaneously
emitted from an LED and propagated down an optical fiber do not arrive at the
far end of the fiber at the same time, resulting in an impairment called
chromatic distortion (sometimes called wavelength dispersion).
Chromatic distortion can be eliminated by using a monochromatic light source
such as an injection laser diode (ILD). Chromatic distortion occurs only in fibers
with a single mode of transmission.

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Radiation Losses

Radiation losses are caused mainly by small bends and kinks in the fiber.
Essentially, there are two types of bends: microbends and constant-radius
bends. Microbending occurs as a result of differences in the thermal
contraction rates between the core and the cladding material. A
microbend is a miniature bend or geometric imperfection along the axis of
the fiber and represents a discontinuity in the fiber where Rayleigh
scattering can occur. Microbending losses generally contribute less than
20% of the total attenuation in a fiber. Constant-radius bends are caused
by excessive pressure and tension and generally occur
when fibers are bent during handling or installation.

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Modal Dispersion
Modal dispersion (sometimes called pulse spreading) is caused by the difference in the
propagation times of light rays that take different paths down a fiber. Obviously, modal
dispersion can occur only in multimode fibers. It can be reduced considerably by using graded
index fibers and almost entirely eliminated by using single-mode step-index fibers.

For multimode propagation, dispersion is often expressed as a bandwidth length product

(BLP) or bandwidth distance product (BDP). BLP indicates what signal frequencies
can be propagated through a given distance of fiber cable and is expressed mathematically
as the product of distance and bandwidth (sometimes called linewidth). Bandwidth
length products are often expressed in MHz km units. As the length of an optical cable
increases, the bandwidth (and thus the bit rate) decreases in proportion.

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Pulse spreading of digital transmissions: (a) UPRZ; (b) UPNRZ

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Coupling Losses

Coupling losses are caused by imperfect physical connections.

In fiber cables, coupling losses can occur at any of the following three types of
optical junctions: light source-to-fiber connections, fiber-to-fiber connections,
and fiber-to-photodetector connections.

Junction losses are most often caused by one of the following alignment
problems: lateral misalignment, gap misalignment, angular misalignment, and
imperfect surface finishes.

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Lateral displacement
Lateral displacement is the
lateral or axial displacement
between two pieces of adjoining
fiber cables.

The amount of loss can be from a

couple tenths of a decibel to
several decibels. This
loss is generally negligible if the
fiber axes are aligned to within 5%
of the smaller fiber’s
diameter.

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Gap displacement (misalignment)

Gap displacement (misalignment) is sometimes called end

separation

When splices are made in optical fibers, the fibers

should actually touch.

The farther apart the fibers, the greater the loss of

light.

If two fibers are joined with a connector, the ends

should not touch because the two ends rubbing
against each other in the connector could cause
damage to either or both fibers.

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Angular displacement (misalignment)

If the angular displacement is less than 2°, the loss will typically be less than 0.5 dB.

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Imperfect surface finish

The ends of the two adjoining fibers should be highly polished and fit together squarely. If the fiber ends
are less than 3° off from perpendicular, the losses will typically be less than 0.5 dB.

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LIGHT SOURCES

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LIGHT SOURCES

There are essentially only two types of practical light sources used to generate light for optical
fiber communications systems: LEDs and ILDs.

Both devices are constructed from semiconductor materials and have advantages and disadvantages.

Standard LEDs have spectral widths of 30 nm to 50 nm, while injection lasers have spectral widths of
only 1 nm to 3 nm (1 nm corresponds to a frequency of about 178 GHz).

Therefore, a 1320-nm light source with a spectral linewidth of 0.0056 nm has a frequency bandwidth
of approximately 1 GHz. Linewidth is the wavelength equivalent of bandwidth.

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LEDs

An LED is a p-n junction diode, usually

made from a semiconductor material such
as aluminumgallium- arsenide (AlGaAs) or
gallium-arsenide-phosphide (GaAsP).

LEDs emit light by spontaneous emission—

light is emitted as a result of the
recombination of electrons and holes

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Light-Emitting Diodes
• An LED is form of junction diode that is operated with forward bias
• Instead of generating heat at the PN junction, light is generated and
passes through an opening or lens
• LEDs can be visible spectrum or infrared

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Injection Laser Diodes

• Laser diodes generate coherent, intense light of a very narrow
bandwidth
• A laser diode has an emission linewidth of about 2 nm, compared to 50
nm for a common LED
• Laser diodes are constructed much like LEDs but operate at higher
current levels

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Advantages
ILDs emit coherent (orderly) light, whereas LEDs emit incoherent (disorderly) light. Therefore,
ILDs have a more direct radian pattern, making it easier to couple light emitted by the ILD into an
optical fiber cable. This reduces the coupling losses and allows smaller fibers to be used

The radiant output power from an ILD is greater than that for an LED. A typical output power for an
ILD is 5 mW (7 dBm) and only 0.5 mW (3 dBm) for LEDs. This allows ILDs to provide a higher drive
power and to be used for systems that operate over longer distances.

ILDs can be used at higher bit rates than LEDs.

ILDs generate monochromatic light, which reduces chromatic or

wavelength dispersion.

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Disadvantages

ILDs are typically 10 times more expensive than LEDs.

Because ILDs operate at higher powers, they typically have a

much shorter lifetime than LEDs.

ILDs are more temperature dependent than LEDs.

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Light Detectors

There are two devices commonly used to detect light energy in fiber-optic communications receivers:
PIN diodes and APDs.

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PIN Diodes

A PIN diode is a depletion-layer photodiode and is probably the most common device used as a light
detector in fiber-optic communications systems.

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• The most common optical detector used with fiber-optic systems is the PIN diode
• The PIN diode is operated in the reverse-bias mode
• As a photodetector, the PIN diode takes advantage of its wide depletion region, in which electrons can
create electron-hole pairs
• The low junction capacitance of the PIN diode allows for very fast switching

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APDs

An APD is a pipn structure. Light enters the diode and is absorbed by the thin, heavily doped n-layer. A high
electric field intensity developed across the i-p-n junction by reverse bias causes impact ionization to occur.

During impact ionization, a carrier can gain sufficient energy to ionize other bound electrons. These ionized
carriers, in turn, cause more ionizations to occur. The process continues as in an avalanche and is,
effectively, equivalent to an internal gain or carrier multiplication.

Consequently, APDs are more sensitive than PIN diodes and require less additional amplification. The
disadvantages of APDs are relatively long transit times and additional internally generated noise due to the
avalanche multiplication factor

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APDs

• The avalanche photodiode (APD) is also operated in the reverse- bias mode
• The creation of electron-hole pairs due to the absorption of a photon of incoming light may set off
avalanche breakdown, creating up to 100 more pairs
• This multiplying effect gives an APD very high sensitivity

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Characteristics of Light Detectors

1. Responsivity. A measure of the conversion efficiency of a photodetector. It is the ratio of the output
current of a photodiode to the input optical power and has the unit of amperes per watt. Responsivity
is generally given for a particular wavelength or frequency.
2. Dark current. The leakage current that flows through a photodiode with no light input. Thermally
generated carriers in the diode cause dark current.
3. Transit time. The time it takes a light-induced carrier to travel across the depletion region of a
semiconductor. This parameter determines the maximum bit rate possible with a particular
photodiode.
4. Spectral response. The range of wavelength values that a given photodiode will respond.
Generally, relative spectral response is graphed as a function of wavelength or frequency
5. Light sensitivity. The minimum optical power a light detector can receive and still
produce a usable electrical output signal. Light sensitivity is generally given for a
particular wavelength in either dBm or dBμ.

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Laser
Laser is an acronym for light amplification stimulated by the emission of radiation.

Basically, there are four types of lasers: gas, liquid, solid, and semiconductor.
1. Gas lasers. Gas lasers use a mixture of helium and neon enclosed in a glass tube. A flow of
coherent (one frequency) light waves is emitted through the output coupler when an electric
current is discharged into the gas. The continuous light-wave output is monochromatic (one
color).
2. Liquid lasers. Liquid lasers use organic dyes enclosed in a glass tube for an active medium.
Dye is circulated into the tube with a pump. A powerful pulse of light excites the organic dye.
3. Solid lasers. Solid lasers use a solid, cylindrical crystal, such as ruby, for the active medium.
Each end of the ruby is polished and parallel. The ruby is excited by a tungsten lamp tied to an
ac power supply. The output from the laser is a continuous wave.
4. Semiconductor lasers. Semiconductor lasers are made from semiconductor p-n junctions and
are commonly called ILDs. The excitation mechanism is a dc power supply that controls the
amount of current to the active medium. The output light from an ILD is easily modulated, making
it very useful in many electronic communications applications.

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Laser Characteristics

They all use

(1) an active material to convert energy into laser light,

(2) a pumping source to provide power or energy,

(3) Optics to direct the beam through the active material to be amplified,

(4) optics to direct the beam into a narrow powerful cone of divergence,

(5) a feedback mechanism to provide continuous operation, and

(6) an output coupler to transmit power out of the laser.

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Ruby lasers produce pulses of coherent visible light at a wavelength of 694.3 nm, which is a deep red color.
The flash causes the chromium atoms within the active crystalline structure to become excited

When the population of ions in the intermediate level is greater than the ground state, a population
inversion occurs. The population inversion causes laser action (lasing) to occur.

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OPTICAL FIBER SYSTEM LINK BUDGET

Link budgets are generally calculated between a light source and a light detector;

Optical fiber communications systems: (a) without repeaters; (b) with repeaters

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