Outline of Optical amplifier measurement
    With the increase in communication traffic, the importance of optical amplifiers such as EDFAs (erbium-doped fiber amplifiers) that can directly amplify optical signals without converting them into electrical signals has been widely deployed in traditional backbone optical transmission networks. This proven amplification technique has expanded to a next generation application to boost free space communication laser signals for orbiting satellite communication networks.
    Optical amplifiers are primarily evaluated by GAIN and NF (noise figure). The Yokogawa OSAs offers a built-in EDFA-NF analysis function to easily measure these characteristics. Simply measure the spectra of input and output of the optical amplifier, using Trace A and Trace B respectively, and execute the analysis function.


    Fig. 1 shows the basic configuration of an optical amplifier measurement. A polarization scrambler can be added before the OSA to reduce the effects of the OSA's polarization dependence.

    Fig. 1 Typical setup of EDFA measurement

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    Lambda Photometrics is the leading UK Distributor of Characterisation, Measurement and Analysis solutions with particular expertise in Instrumentation, Laser & Light based products, Optics, Electro-optic Testing, Spectroscopy, Machine Vision, Optical Metrology, Fibre Optics, Microscopy and Anti-vibration tables & custom solutions.

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