Fiber optic splitter is one of the important passive components in fiber optic network. It has multiple inputs and multiple outputs. M×N is commonly used to indicate that a fiber optic splitter has M input terminals and N output terminals. It is suitable for passive optical networks.
Classification
According to different spectral theory, The fiber optic splitter can be divided into Fused Biconical Taper Splitter (FBT Splitter) and Planar Lightwave Circuit Splitter (PLC Splitter).
FBT Splitter
The fused tapering method is to bundle two or more optical fibers with their coatings removed, melt them under high-temperature heating, and stretch them to both sides at the same time. Finally, a special waveguide structure in the form of a double cone is formed in the heating zone. By controlling the twisting angle and stretching length of the optical fiber, different light splitting ratios can be obtained. Finally, the tapered area is solidified on the quartz substrate with curing glue and inserted into the stainless copper tube.
PLC Splitter
PLC devices are manufactured using semiconductor technology, which can integrate optical components with different functions into one chip, and can achieve up to 1x32 or more branches on one chip. Then the input and output optical fiber arrays are coupled to both ends of the chip respectively and packaged. According to different package, PLC Splitter can be divided into : Steel Tube Type, ABS Box Type, LGX Box Type, Plug-in Type, Tray Type, 19 Inch Rack Type.
Item | FBT Splitter | PLC Splitter |
Advantage | ①Low additional loss; ②Low polarization dependent loss. | ①Loss is not sensitive to light wavelength; ②PLC optical splitter can split light equally and equally; ③The structure is compact and the volume is small. ④A single device has many branch channels, which can reach more than 32 channels; ⑤Multi-channel cost is low, and the more branches, the more obvious the cost advantage. |
Disadvantage | ①Loss is sensitive to optical wavelength; ②The splitter splits the light unevenly; ②FBT Splitter is affected by its large size, and its reliability and installation are limited; ④Insertion loss changes greatly with temperature. | ①PLC Splitter manufacturing process is complex and the technical requirements is high; ②Compared with the FBT Splitter, the cost is higher. |
Difference between FBT Splitter and PLC Splitter
1. Wavelength
FBT Splitter support only three wavelengths : 850nm, 1310nm, 1550nm. But PLC Splitter can support wavelengths from 1260 to 1650nm. The adjustable wavelength range makes PLC Splitter suitable for more applications.
2. Light Split Ratio
Light split ratio refers to the ratio of the input signal and the output signal of the fiber optical splitter. The maximum splitting ratio of FBT splitter can reach 1:32, but the splitting ratio of PLC splitter is as high as 1:64. Relatively speaking, PLC splitter has higher reliability.
3. Spectral Uniformity
PLC Splitter can achieve uniform light splitting in equal proportions, while FBT Splitter is packaged by multiple 1x2 connections. Due to lack of signal management, FBT Splitter cannot achieve uniform light splitting. Moreover, the larger the light splitting ratio, the worse the uniformity, which affects optical transmission distance.
4. Failure Rate
FBT Splitter is typically used in networks requiring a splitter configuration of less than 4 splitters. The more branches there are, the higher the failure rate. Therefore, FBT Splitter is more limited to the number of splitters in a coupling. But the failure rate of PLC Splitter is much smaller than that of FBT Splitter.
5. Working Temperature
FBT Splitter can work stably at temperatures from -5 to 75°C. But PLC Splitter can work in the temperature range of -40 to 85℃, and it will be better to use PLC Splitter in extreme climate areas.
How to choose Fiber Optical Splitter?
1. In some application scenarios that do not have high requirements on volume and wavelength, it is more economical to choose FBT Splitter. For example, independent data transmission uses 1310nm FBT Splitter, and TV video network can choose 1550nm FBT Splitter.
2. PLC Splitter can be used in application scenarios that multi-wavelength and multi-split optical transmission, such as tri-networks integration, FTTH, etc.
Tags : Fiber Optical Splitter, FBT Splitter, PLC Splitter
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