The tunable laser speeds up the automated adjustment of wavelength-selective devices and allows test engineers to validate more devices per hour than they can with currently available models.
Tunable lasers, in combination with optical power meters and a polarisation controller, are used to measure the filter slope, isolation, polarisation dependence, insertion loss and reflectivity of multiplexers/demultiplexers, channel interleavers and wavelength-selective switches used in reconfigurable optical fibre networks. The cascading of filter shapes from ROADMs (reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers) along the path of today’s fast modulation-broadened signals makes it critical for component manufacturers to comply with nearly ideal channel specifications, leaving little to no room for measurement uncertainty.
The tunable laser offers 15 dB more dynamic range through higher signal power with lower spontaneous emission, enabled by the new cavity and laser module design and a 4-fold improvement in absolute accuracy with increased real-time tracking speed and resolution, enabled by the novel wavelength reference unit.
It also features 40 times faster sweeps without impacting the specified dynamic accuracy, enabled by enhanced feedback controls and drive mechanics