Fibre polarisation put to the test

Fibre-optic test equipment allows researchers and designers to fully characterise all polarisation-related parameters with unmatched speed and accuracy.

Agilent Technologies has expanded its fibre-optic test portfolio with six new polarisation analysis and control solutions for R and D and manufacturing of optical components and systems.

These new Agilent products allow researchers and designers to fully characterise all polarisation-related parameters with unmatched speed and accuracy.

Agilent will show the new products for the first time at the European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication (ECOC), from 17th to 19th September 2007 at the International Congress Centrum in Berlin, Germany.

The products are based on the industry-proven technology developed by Adaptif Photonics, which Agilent acquired in June 2007.

For manufacturers, the new product portfolio offers fast and cost-effective control and test solutions for alignment, adjustment and final test, helping to reduce the cost of test and increase yield and throughput.

"We acquired Adaptif Photonics to strengthen our optical test and measurement offerings", says Juergen Beck, Business Segment Manager for Photonic Test and Measurement at Agilent's Photonic and Network Test Division.

"The new products offer unprecedented performance in the optical test industry and significantly enhance our offering for our customers, addressing their component test needs in high-speed broadband network designs".

The N7781A is a compact high-speed polarisation analyser that provides comprehensive capabilities for analysing polarisation properties of optical signals.

This includes representation of the state of polarisation (SOP) on the Poincare sphere (Stokes parameter).

The N7782A PER analyser is designed for high-speed and highly accurate testing of the polarisation extinction ratio (PER) in PM fibres.

The real-time measurement capability, in combination with automation interfaces, makes this unit ideally suited for integration in manufacturing systems like pigtailing stations for optical components.

The N7783A thermal cycling unit is fully controlled by the Agilent N7782A PER analyser and allows accurate and repeatable cycling of the temperature of the fibre under test.

The new family of polarisation controllers - N7784A, N7785A and N7786A - provide a stable output SOP even with fluctuations and drifts of the input SOP as occurring, for example, through temperature drift and mechanical settling processes.

This makes alignment and adjustment processes faster and more reliable, saving time and cost.

With a built-in polarimeter, the Agilent N7786A provides truly high-speed polarisation analysis capabilities; more than 500,000 samples can be taken with a sample rate of up to 1Msample/s.

The N7788A component analyser's proprietary technology is comparable with the well-known Jones-Matrix-Eigenanalysis (JME) or differential group delay (DGD) of optical devices.

Agilent's new single-scan technology provides a complete set of parameters, including DGD/ PMD/PDL/2nd order PMD, power/loss, TE/TM-loss, principal states of polarisation (PSPs), and Jones and Mueller matrices, in just one test instrument.

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