What is a fiber optic power meter?
Fiber optic power meter usually measures how much light is
coming out of a fiber optic cable. It can be used for determining the amount of
light that is being generated by an optical source, or the amount of light that
is being coupled into an optical light source.
Generally, the optical power is measured in dBm, or decibels
referenced to 1mW. These devices do not measure the peak power but it measures
the average optical power, so they are sensitive to the duty cycle of the data
transmitted.
To the system being measured, their power and wavelength of the range have to be matched appropriately. Many power meters that are used to test
communication networks are designed to work at 850nm, 1300nm and 1500nm
wavelength ranges and in the power range of -15 to -35dBm for multimode links,
or for single-mode links, it has to be 0-40dBm.
Different types of power meters those are available
You will find fiber optical power meter, like
DMMs in a variety of types. Practically, the measurement uncertainty of all
fiber optic power meters is the same but with optical connections, it is
limited by the physical constraints of transferring standards.
No matter what the resolution of the display can be there
are many meters that have an uncertainty of +/- 5% or approximately 0.2dB.
Lower cost meters or those for field use usually have a resolution of 0.1dB,
laboratory meters display 0.01dB, and on a few specialized meters, a resolution
of 0.001dB is available. The fiber identifier proves to be
very useful and in demand.
According to the test, the appropriate resolution for
measurement should be chosen. To an uncertainty of 0.05dB and0.01dB resolution
or less if in controlling the test conditions, Laboratory measurements of
low-loss patch cables, connectors and splices can be made great care.
