3-Fiber 1550nm SLED Source for IMU Applications

A novel, 14-pin Butterfly (BTF) light source module, incorporating a broadband Superluminescent Light-Emitting Diode (SLED) at 1550 nm, has been developed for inertial measurement unit (IMU) applications. The compact BTF module integrates micro-optical lenses, a flatpack optical isolator, a monolithic 1:3 beam divider and other components on a temperature-controlled, free-space optical bench platform and is delivering, at an SLED current of 300 mA, more than 3.5 mW of output power at each of the three polarization-maintaining (PM) output fibers with a polarization extinction ratio (PER) larger than 18 dB.