Optics demystified: A fiber-optic link test primer

Electronics communications standards demand higher bandwidth and density every year. As serial data communication bit rates begin to exceed 10Gbps and approach 40Gbps and greater, current copper interface performance erodes quickly. The solution is to use an optical interface that reduces loss, space, and weight. Optical interfaces bring with them new terminology, concepts, and challenges that did not exist with electrical interfaces. One of these challenges is how to properly test the functionality of optical UUTs as well as their parameters. One solution is an optical tester that enables the test engineer to measure and exercise parameters associated with the optics such as receiver sensitivity, transmit power levels, bandwidth, extinction ratio, and data link integrity.