Low cost fiber optic teaching aid with wide dynamic range optical power meter and bandwidth analyzer

Author

Samarawickrama, Yasantha C. ; Thilakumara, Rohana P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Sri Lanka Inst. of Inf. Technol., Malabe, Sri Lanka

fYear

2015

fDate

7-8 April 2015

Firstpage

246

Lastpage

250

Abstract

Fiber optic communication technology is an essential component in any Electrical Engineering curriculum. Unfortunately the expensive fiber optic communication equipment is a major drawback in teaching fiber optics theories and principles especially in the 3^rd world countries. This paper presents a development of a low cost Fiber optic power meter and a bandwidth analyzer to be used in laboratories as a teaching aid. Both power meter and analyzer are designed to operate at 850nm, 1310nm and 1550nm optical wavelengths. Analyzer measures the bandwidth of a modulated optical signal up to 500 MHz. The logarithmic amplifier enhances the power meter dynamic range. The cost of the product is less than 100 US dollars at small scale production and can be further reduced if mass produced.

Keywords

educational aids; electrical engineering education; optical fibre communication; power meters; bandwidth analyzer; electrical engineering curriculum; fiber optic communication technology; logarithmic amplifier; low cost fiber optic teaching aid; wavelength 850 nm to 1550 nm; wide dynamic range optical power meter; Bandwidth; Optical amplifiers; Optical attenuators; Optical fibers; Optical modulation; Optical variables measurement; Fiber Optic Communication; Low Cost; Optical Power Measurements; Optical Signal Bandwidth Analyzer; Teaching aid;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference (MERCon), 2015

Conference_Location

Moratuwa

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MERCon.2015.7112353

Filename

7112353