Fiber Optic Testing

What is OTDR Fiber Optic Testing?

Optical Time Domain Reflectometer — “OTDR” for short — is an electronic-optical instrument that is used to characterize optical fibers. It locates defects and faults, and determines the amount of signal loss at any point in an optical fiber. An OTDR only needs to have access to one end of a fiber to make its measurements. It consists of a laser source, an optical sensor, a coupler/splitter, and a controller section. The laser diode sends out pulses of light on command from the controller. You change the duration of the pulse (pulse width) for different measuring conditions. The light goes through the coupler-splitter and into the fiber under test. Some OTDRs have multiple lasers to allow for testing fibers at different wavelengths.

SemiNex provides high power laser diodes below that can be ideal laser sources for OTDR instrumentation:

SemiNex 1310nm laser diodes

SemiNex 1550nm laser diodes

SemiNex 1625nm laser diodes

SemiNex 1650nm laser diodes

EDFA Supervisory Channel

With the ever growing development in erbium-doped-fiber-amplifier (EDEA) repeaters in the wavelength-division-multiplex (WDM) systems, it is important to use a practical supervisory method that facilitates simultaneous monitoring and fault-locating capability. Simultaneous fiber-fault location and status monitoring can be achieved using a laser diode in the range of 1503nm to 1517nm. Please contact sales@seminex.com for more details.