CHAPTER

1 Optoelectronics
Communications
School of Computer and Communication
Engineering,
University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP)
EKT 442: Optoelectronics
 Coursework Contribution
1. COURSE IMPLEMENTATIONS
I)Lecture
3 hours per week for 14 weeks (Total = 42 hours)
II)Laboratory

2 hours per week for 14 weeks (Total = 28 hours)

Laboratory assignment 20%

Quiz and Assignments 10%
Test 1&2 20 %
Final Exam 50%
Total 100%

Lecturer: Dr. Hilal A. Fadhil, Prof. Dr. Syed Alwee Aljunid

Office: 1st Floor, House #8A, KKF 34, K.wei- Kuala Perlis
E-mail: hilaladnan@unimap.edu.my
Office tel#: 04-9852639
HP#: Upon Request

Teaching Engineer: Mr. Matnor+ Ms. Fazilna, matnor@unimap.edu.my

Office: House #A4, KKF 33, Kuala Perlis
 Course material
Course text book:
Gerd Keiser, Optical Fiber Communications,
3rd Edition, Mc Graw Hill, 2000
Reference Books:
Joseph C. Palais, Fiber Optic Communications, 5th
Edition, Prentice Hall, 2005
Jeff Hecht, Undestanding Fiber Optics, 5th Edition,
Prentice Hall, 2006
Course Outcome
Chapter 1-Introduction:

Chapter 2: Light Propagation & Transmission Characteristics of Optical Fiber

Chapter 3: Optical Components/ Passive Devices

Chapter 4: Optical Sources

Chapter 5: Light Detectors, Noise and Detection

Chapter 6: SYSTEM DESIGN

 Introduction
For years fiber optics has been merely a system for piping light
around corners and into in accessible places so as to allow the hidden to be
seen. But now, fiber optics has evolved into a system of significantly greater
importance and use. Throughout the world it is now being used to transmit
voice, video, and data signals by light waves over flexible hair-thin threads of
glass or plastics. Its advantages in such use, as compared to conventional
coaxial cable or twisted wire pairs, are fantastic. As a result, light-wave
communication systems of fiber optics communication system are one of the
important feature for todays communication.

What are the features of a optical communication system?

Why optical instead of copper wire ?
 A History of Fiber Optic Technology

The Nineteenth Century

John Tyndall, 1870

water and light experiment
demonstrated light used
internal reflection to follow a
specific path
William Wheeling, 1880
piping light patent
never took off
Alexander Graham Bell, 1880
optical voice transmission
system
called a photophone
free light space carried
voice 200 meters
Fiber-scope, 1950s
 The Twentieth Century
Glass coated fibers developed to reduce optical loss
Inner fiber - core core
Glass coating - cladding
Development of laser technology was important to fiber
optics
Large amounts of light in a tiny spot needed
1960, ruby and helium-neon laser developed
1962, semiconductor laser introduced - most popular type
of laser in fiber optics

cladding
 The Twentieth Century (continued)
1966, Charles Kao and Charles Hockman proposed optical fiber could be
used to transmit laser light if attenuation could be kept under 20dB/km
(optical fiber loss at the time was over 1,000dB/km)
1970, Researchers at Corning developed a glass fiber with less than a
20dB/km loss
Attenuation depends on the wavelength of light
Optical Wavelength Bands

Short
band
C-band: Conventional Band
L-band: Long Band
Fiber Optics Applications
Military
1970s, Fiber optic telephone link installed aboard the U.S.S.
Little Rock
1976, Air Force developed Airborne Light Fiber Technology
(ALOF)

Commercial
1977, AT&T and GTE installed the first fiber optic telephone
system
Fiber optic telephone networks are common today
Research continues to increase the capabilities of fiber optic
transmission
Applications of Fiber Optics
Military
Computer
Medical/Optometric
Sensor
Communication
Military Application
Computer Application
Sensors

Gas sensors
Chemical sensors
Mechanical sensors
Fuel sensors
Distance sensors
Pressure sensors
Fluid level sensors
Gyro sensors
Medical Application
Endoscope
Eyes surgery
Blood pressure meter
The Future
Fiber Optics have immense potential bandwidth
(over 1 teraHertz, 1012 Hz)
Fiber optics is predicted to bring broadband services
to the home
interactive video
interactive banking and shopping
distance learning
security and surveillance
high-speed data communication
digitized video
Fiber Optic Fundamentals
Advantages of Fiber Optics
Immunity from Electromagnetic Better Signal Quality
(EM) Radiation and Lightning Lower Cost
Lighter Weight
Easily Upgraded
Higher Bandwidth
Ease of Installation

The main advantages:

Large BW and Low loss
Immunity from EM radiation and Lightning:
- Fiber is made from dielectric (non-conducting)
materials, It is un affected by EM radiation.
- Immunity from EM radiation and lightning most
important to the military and in aircraft design.
- The fiber can often be run in same conduits that
currently carry power, simplifying installation.

Lighter Weight:
- Copper cables can often be replaced by fiber optic
cables that weight at least ten times less.
- For long distances, fiber optic has a significant
weight advantage over copper cable.
Higher Bandwidth
- Fiber has higher bandwidth than any alternative
available.
- CATV industry in the past required amplifiers every
thousand feet, when copper cable was used (due to
limited bandwidth of the copper cable).
- A modern fiber optic system can carry the signals up
100km without repeater or without amplification.

Better Signal Quality

- Because fiber is immune to EM interference, has

lower loss per unit distance, and wider bandwidth,
signal quality is usually substantially better compared
to copper.
Lower Cost
- Fiber certainly costs less for long distance applications.
- The cost of fiber itself is cheaper per unit distance than copper if
bandwidth and transmission distance requirements are high.
Principles of Fiber Optic Transmission
Electronic signals converted to light
Light refers to more than the visible portion of the electromagnetic
(EM) spectrum
Optical power Measurement units:
In designing an optical fiber link, it is of interest to establish, measure the signal
level at the transmitter, at the receiver,, at the cable connection, and in the cable.
Power: Watt (W), Decibel (dB), and dB Milliwatt (dBm).

dB: The difference (or ratio) between two signal levels. Used to describe the effect of system
devices on signal strength. For example, a cable has 6 dB signal loss or an amplifier has 15 dB of
gain.
PowerOut
Gain 10 log dB
PowerIn

dBm: A signal strength or power level. 0 dBm is defined as 1 mW (milliWatt) of power into a
terminating load such as an antenna or power meter.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Light is organized into what is known as the
electromagnetic spectrum.

- The electromagnetic spectrum is composed of visible

and near-infrared light like that transmitted by fiber
and all other wavelengths used to transmit signals
such as AM and FM and television.
Principles of Fiber Optic Transmission
Wavelength - the distance a single cycle of an
EM wave covers
For fiber optics applications, two categories of
wavelength are used
visible (400 to 700 nanometers) - limited use
near-infrared (700 to 2000 nanometers) - used
almost always in modern fiber optic systems
Elements of an Optical Fiber communication

Fiber optic links contain three basic elements

transmitter
optical fiber
receiver

Optical Fiber

User User
Input(s) Transmitter Receiver
Output(s)

Electrical-to-Optical Optical-to-Electrical
Conversion Conversion
 Transmitter (TX)

Electrical interface encodes users information through AM,

FM or Digital Modulation

Encoded information transformed into light by means of a

light-emitting diode (LED) or laser diode (LD)

User Electrical Data Encoder/ Light Optical

Input(s) Output
Interface Modulator Emitter
 Receiver (RX)

decodes the light signal back into an electrical signal

types of light detectors typically used
PIN photodiode
Avalanche photodiode
made from silicon (Si), indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs)
or germanium (Ge)
the data decoder/demodulator converts the signals into the
correct format

User
Optical Light Detector/ Data Decoder/ Electrical Output(s)
Input Amplifier Demodulator Interface
 Transmission comparison
metallic: limited information and distance
free-space:
large bandwidth
long distance
not private
costly to obtain
useable spectrum
optical fiber: offers
best of both
Fiber Optic Components
 Fiber Optics Cable
Extremely thin strands of ultra-pure glass
Three main regions
center: core (9 to 100 microns)
middle: cladding (125 or 140 microns)
outside: coating or buffer (250, 500 and 900 microns)
A FIBER STRUCTURE
 Light Emitters
Two types
Light-emitting diodes
(LEDs)
Surface-emitting
(SLED): difficult to
focus, low cost
Edge-emitting (ELED):
easier to focus, faster
Laser Diodes (LDs)
narrow beam
fastest
Detectors
Two types
Avalanche photodiode
internal gain
more expensive
extensive support electronics required
PIN photodiode
very economical
does not require additional support circuitry
used more often
Interconnection Devices
Connectors, splices, couplers, splitters, switches, wavelength
division multiplexers (WDMs)
Examples
Interfaces between local area networks and devices
Patch panels
Network-to-terminal connections
Manufacture of Optical Fiber
 Introductions
1970, Corning developed new process called inside vapor
deposition (IVD) to first achieve attenuation less than 20dB/km
Later, Corning developed outside vapor deposition (OVD) which
increased the purity of fiber
Optical fiber was developed that exhibits losses as low as 0.2dB/km
(at 1550nm). This seemed to be adequate for any application.
As the Internet expanded, more capacity was needed. Electronics
can handle about 40Gbps, but not much more. Researchers
developed Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (DWDM) - 80 or
more simultaneous data streams can now be combined on a single
fiber, each being transmitted at a slightly different color of light
Manufacture of Optical Fiber - MCVD
Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD)
another term for IVD method
vaporized raw materials are deposited into a pre-made silica
tube
Cont
Widely adopted to produce very low loss graded index fibers.
The glass vapor particles, arising from the reaction of the constituent metal halide
gases and oxygen, flow through the inside of a revolving silica tube.
As the SiO2 particles are deposited, they are sintered to a clear glass layer by an
oxyhydrogen torch which travels back and forth along the tube.
When the desired thickness of glass has been deposited, the vapor flow is shut off
and the tube is heated strongly to cause it to collapse into a solid rod preform.
The fiber that is subsequently drawn from this preform rod will have a core that
consists of the vapor deposited material and a cladding that consists of the original
silica tube.
Manufacture of Optical Fiber - OVD
Outside Vapor Deposition (OVD)
vaporized raw materials are deposited on a rotating rod
the rod is removed and the resulting perform is consolidated by
heating

Other Fiber Fabrication methods: Refer to the text book pages no. 70-74.
 Exercises (page no.25/ Text book)
Q1: Convert the following absolute power levels to dBm values: 1pW, 1nW,
1mW.

Q2: What are the advantages of using Optical fiber over other wireless
communication system ? Give an example to show the application of fiber
optics in the real life.

Q3: A 50-km long optical fiber has a total attenuation of 24 dB. If 500 micro
watt of optical power get lanuched into the fiber, what is the output power
level in dBm and in Mico watt?

Q4: There are many methods which have been used to fabricate and
manufacture an optical fiber, list out at least three methods and explain
one of them.

Q5: Convert the following dBm values to power level in mW: -13 dBm, -6
dBm.

Q6: Discuss and sketch the block diagram of an optical fiber communication
elements?