Return Loss and Insertion Loss Calibration and Measurement of Optical and RF Power.

Optical Measurement What is return loss? When light passes through an optical component most of it travels in the intended direction but some light is reflected or scattered. In man! applications these reflections are unwanted because the! can affect the emission characteristics of an! laser in the s!stem. In such s!stems it is important to measure the reflections for the components of the s!stem. "he reflection factor for the component is the measure of how much light the component reflects. It the ratio of the power reflected b! the device to the power incident on the device. More normall! we tal# about the return loss of a component. "he return loss has units of d$. Return loss is given b!% Return Loss (dB) = -10 log (Reflection Factor) (dB) Return Loss (dB) = -10 log (Reflected Power/Incident Power) (dB) What is insertion loss? Light that is absorbed scattered or reflected b! a component also affects how much light a component transmits. "he transmission factor of a component is a measure of how much light the component transmits. It is a ratio of the power transmitted b! the device to the power incident on the device. More normall! we tal# about the Insertion Loss of a component. "he insertion loss has units of d$. Insertion loss is given b!% Insertion Loss (dB) = -10 log (Transmission Factor) dB Insertion Loss (dB) = -10 log (Transmitted Power/Incident Power) (dB) Measurement Module "he &'(')* series Return Loss modules are compact modules for use with the *gilent &'(+* Lightwave Measurement ,!stem. "he! are used for ma#ing return loss measurements and in con-unction with a power sensor module can be used to measure insertion loss. * return loss module measures the light reflected and scattered as light passes through an optical component. *gilent &'('.* return loss module was used in this pro-ect. It includes a power sensor monitor diode two couplers and an internal laser source in one module as shown in Figure '.

contact ;2ternal laser source Internal laser source

M<="

Output 89'.: m

P<="

Figure '. "he contents of *gilent &'('.* Return Loss module. "he diodes shown compensate for power variation in the light source. Calibration Measurements $efore measuring the insertion loss or return loss of a device under test calibration is important as it eliminates wavelength dependencies coupler directivit! insertion losses bac#scattering and other non/ideal characteristics of the s!stem. Calibrating the Return Loss Module "he mainframe alwa!s displa!s a value for the return loss if it has a return loss module. It is therefore important to calibrate the return loss module against a component of #nown reflectance. I used *gilent &'('0CC reference cable for calibration. "he procedure is described in the user1s guide. *ttach the reference cable to the output of the &'('. *. "his return loss module has an internal laser. *ttach the high return loss connector of the reference cable to the output. For best results and higher repeatabilit! fi2 the cable. 3ow on the module ma#e sure that the value of 4RL ref5 is correct 6'+.(d$7. If not then edit the value. "hen press menu and select reflectance calibration. "he instrument now measures the power reflected b! the reference cable. "he 4RL5 value changes to the same value as entered for 4RLref5. "his completes the calibration of the module. Calculating the Return Loss and Insertion Loss of the DUT

Psrc

Mref t' t.
Pr >' >. Pin

Pref

"he reflected power measured b! the instrument from the component with the #nown reflection factor is given b! the sum of% "he part of the power reflected b! the component which is transmitted through the coupler and "he reflections due to the measurement s!stem. "hat is%
P = t . ! ' ! . Psrc R + t . s

where%
= t' Psrc

t. "' " . t' t c. = . s t' P = c' R + c . c' =

"he constants t' t. #' #. are multipliers giving the proportion of power transmitted through the coupler form the input port to the output port and from the output port to the sensor port respectivel!. What this means is that when optical power is input at the output port >. times that power is output at the sensor port. Calibration eliminates these constants. "he constant s is a multiplier giving the scattering factor. "his factor accounts for the directivit! of the second coupler bac#scatter in the fiber and the reflections of the connectors. "he calibration procedure helps eliminate the effects of these on return loss measurements. We calibrate the return loss with a component with a #nown return loss Rref.
Pref = c'
ref

Rref + c .

ref

When there are no reflections all the power measured b! the sensor is due to the non/ ideal nature of the measurement s!stem. "his is the termination parameter.
P#ara = c .
#ara

for a <="
P$%T = c'
$%T

R $%T + c .

$%T

,ubstituting e?uations into e?uation

Pref = c'
ref

Rref +

ref #ara

P#ara

P$%T = c'

$%T

R $%T +

$%T #ara

P#ara

P$%T RL$%T = '0 log

ref $%T

$%T #ara

P#ara '0 log Rref P#ara

Pref

ref #ara

Psrc t' t.

Mref
Power meter >' >. Measurement patchcord ;meas

Pref

Psrc

MIL <="
Power meter

Measurement patch cord

;IL

"he insertion loss is given b! the following e?uation

IL$%T = '0 log & IL & eas

Results "o measure the return loss connect the device under test directl! to the return loss module. "he value displa!ed in the RL field in d$ is the return loss of the <=". "he return loss measurement for different cables is "!pe FC/FC cable FC/,C cable FC/,C with FC/FC FC/FC with FC/,C Return loss6RL7 &.' d$ & d$ @.A d$ @.@ d$

"he return loss varies with wavelength as well as with laser power. With wavelength the difference in the value of return loss is about + d$ and with laser power the variation in its value is about 0.Ad$. ,ince return loss is a measure of the amount of power reflected bac# at a discontinuit! hence it is also dependent on the refractive inde2 of the fiber. *s the wavelength changes the refractive inde2 of the fiber also changes causing the return loss value to be different at different wavelengths. Ideall! the return loss should be the same for an! value of laser power but this is not the case as can be seen from the measurements. *ll these effects should be #ept in mind for accurate measurements. "he insertion loss of the FC/,C cable was measured. First the &'(+0* tunable laser source was connected directl! to the &'(A:* power sensor using ,C/,C cable in order to measure the power transmitted directl!. "hen the FC/,C cable was connected to the ,C/ ,C cable and then connected to the power sensor. "he difference in the power measured is the insertion loss of the FC/,C cable. "he measurements for different wavelengths are given in the following table Wavelength ':'0 ':.0 ':A0 ':+0 '::0 ':(0 ':@0 ':&0 ':80 '(00 '('0 Power 6,C/,C7 d$m /'..' /&.' /(..' /:.: /: /+.( /+.A /+.' /+ /+.. /(.. Power 6FC/,C7 d$m /'.... /&..A /(..: /:.:' /:.' /+.@ /+.A@ /+.. /+.' /+.A@ /(... Insertion Loss 6d$7 0.'. 0.'A 0.0+ 0.0' 0.' 0.' 0.0@ 0.' 0.' 0.'@ 0.0.

"he insertion loss of the FC/,C cable is about .'d$ and is dominantl! due to the connector loss. "his value of loss is reasonable for the connector.

RF

easurements

BP &:'0(C Millimeter/wave 3etwor# *nal!Cer ,!stem ,!stem <escription% "he &:'0(C mm/wave s!stem consists of an BP &:'0C two sources a band independent BP &:'0: mm/Wave "est ,et Controller and a pair of band dependent BP &:'0+ series mm/Wave test set modules covering the @: to ''0 DBC waveguide band i.e. W band. One source provides the RF 6stimulus7 signal and the second source provides the Local Oscillator 6LO7 signal. "he BP &:'0 uses its multiple source control feature over the s!stem bus to tune both the RF and LO source over the entire fre?uenc! sweep. Calibration% "he calibration procedure for two port devices consists of measuring a Cero/length thru connection short circuits at each port terminations at each port for isolation and the waveguide shim as the Line standard. "his calibration produces './term error correction and provides best accurac! for ./port devices. Refer to ,!stem Manual page ./'. for calibration procedure. Measurement of Insertion loss and Reflection loss% "he s!stem is read! for use in measurement after the calibration is completed successfull!. Measurement of s parameters for a device is used for calculating the above losses. "o calculate the insertion loss of a waveguide connect port ' and port . directl! and measure ,.' i.e. the forward transmission coefficient. 3ow connect the waveguide between port ' and port . and again measure ,.'. "he difference in the measurements is the insertion loss of the waveguide. ,'' and ,.. are the input and output reflection losses respectivel!. "he .0 d$ and :0 d$ attenuators were used and verified during the measurement.