DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Minimum Pass Material (MPM)

Course Code EC8751 Academic Year 2023-2024

Course Name Optical Communication Year/Sem. IV/VII

Unit –IV Optical Receiver Measurements and Coupling

Introduction:

• The design of an optical receiver is much more complicated when compared to an optical
transmitter.
• Because the receiver must first detect the weak signals, distorted signals and then make decisions
on what type of data was sent based on an amplified version of this distorted signal.
Fundamental receiver operation:
• The function of the optical transmitter is to convert the electric signal to an optical signal.
• The transmitted signal is a two-level binary stream consisting of either a 0 (absence of light pulse)
or 1 (presence of light pulse) in a timeslot of duration Tb.
• As the optical signal propagates along the fiber, it gets attenuated and distorted.
• The receiver converts the optical signal back to an electrical signal. The basic components of an
optical receiver are shown below.
• The PIN or APD produces an electric current that is proportional to the received power from fiber.
• The electric current is very weak; a front-end amplifier is used to boost up the signal.
• After amplification, the signal passes through a LPF to reduce the noise.
• To reduce the effect of ISI and to reshape the pulses, equalizer is used.
• The sampling circuit samples the signal level at the midpoint of each time slot.
• The decision circuit compares it with a certain reference voltage known as the threshold level.
• If the received signal level is greater than the threshold, 1 is received and below the threshold, 0 is
received.
Error Sources:

• Errors in the detection mechanism can arise from various noises and disturbances associated with
the signal detection system.

Noise:
• The term noise is means that unwanted signal
• It tends to disturb the transmission and processing of the signal

Types of Noise:

• The noise sources can be either external or internal to the system

• Internal noise arises due to spontaneous fluctuations: Shot noise and Thermal noise.
• External noise arises due to atmosphere and equipment generated noise
• Shot noise arises in electronic devices because of the discrete nature of current flow in the device.
• Thermal noise arises from the random motion of electrons in a conductor.

• For an APD and P-I-N diodes, an additional shot noise arises from the statistical nature of the
multiplication process. This noise level increases with increasing avalanche gain M.
• The dark current and surface leakage current noises are independent of the phonons
• Thermal noises arising from the detector load resistor and from the amplifier electronics tend to
dominate in applications with low SNR when a PIN photodiode is used.
 • The average number of electron-hole pairs:
𝜂𝐸
𝑁=
ℎ𝑓
• The probability is

𝑒𝑁
𝑛
𝑃𝑟 (𝑛) = 𝑁
𝑛!
Inter Symbol Interference (ISI):
• When the pulses spreading in an optical fiber, ISI will occur which is error sources

Definition of ISI:

• When pulse is transmitted in a given time slot, most of the pulses energy will arrive in the
corresponding time slot at the receiver. But because of pulse spreading induced by the receiver,
some of the transmitted energy will progressively spread into neighboring time slots as the pulse
propagates along the fiber. The presence of this energy in adjacent time slots results in an
interfering of the signal. This is called as Inter-Symbol-Interference.

Receiver Configuration:

It has three basic stages:

• 1. Photodetector, 2. An amplifier and 3. An equalizer

• The photo detector can be either an APD with a mean gain M or a PIN photo diode for which M = 1.
• The photo diode has quantum efficiency and a capacitor Cd. The detector bias resistor has a
resistance Rb which generates a thermal noise current ib(t).
• The amplifier input impendence is the parallel combination of a resistance Ra and a shunt capacitance
Ca.
• The equalizer is a linear frequency-shaping filter used to compensate the effects of signal distortion
and inter symbol in interference.
 • The binary pulse train incident on the photo detector is given by

Digital receiver performance:

• The digital receiver performance can be evaluated by measuring the probability of error and
quantum limit.

Bit error rate (BER):

• It is defined as the ratio between numbers of errors (𝑁𝑒 ) occurring over a certain time interval t to
the number of pulses transmitted (𝑁𝑡 ) during this interval

𝑁𝑒 𝑁𝑒
𝐵𝐸𝑅 = =
𝑁𝑡 𝐵𝑡

Bit rate =𝐵=1/Tb

• Typical error rates for optical fiber communication ranges from 10-9 to 10-12.
• This error rate depends on the SNR at the receiver.
• To compute BER at the receiver, probability distribution function of the signal at the equalize
output should be known.
• Noise power for logic 0 ≠ noise power for logic 1.
BER:
Quantum limit:
• Ideal photo detector which has unity quantum efficiency and which produces no dark current
that is, no electron - hole pairs are generated in the absence of an optical pulse.
• In this condition, it is possible to find the minimum received optical power required for a specific
bit error-rate performance in a digital system. This minimum received power level is known as the
quantum limit.

Fiber Measurements:
• Numerical aperture is the light gathering capability of a fiber or light collecting ability of optical
fiber.
• It is related to the refractive index of core and cladding. For step index fiber it is expressed as
𝑁𝐴 = (n12 – n22 )1⁄2
• It is unit less quantity and its value ranging from 0.14 to 0.5

• The acceptance angle (ɵa) is the maximum angle to the fiber axis at which the light may enter the
fiber axis in order to be propagated.

𝜃𝑎 = sin−1(𝑁𝐴)
• The Normalized frequency number (V) for step index fiber,

Measurements of Numerical aperture are:

1. Measurement of the NA using Rotating disc:

• The end face of the fiber is parallel to the plane of the photodetector input
• Fiber output is perpendicular to the axis of rotation
• A light at wavelength of 850nm is launched into the fiber at all possible angles
• Photodetector is placed at 10 to 20 cm from the fiber and it is positioned in order to obtain a
maximum signal with no rotation(0º)
• When the rotating disc is turned, the far field pattern may be recorded. The output power is
monitored and it is plotted as a function of angle.
• NA is measured from acceptance angle
 2. Trigonometric fiber NA measurement:
• The light is launched into the fiber and the far field from the fiber is displayed on screen
which is positioned at a distance D from the fiber output.
• Light pattern size on the screen A is measured and measured numerical aperture

Fiber diameter measurements:

• On line diameter measurements techniques provides a better accuracy.
• The fiber outer diameter is measured using fiber image projection (shadow method)
• In this method, laser beam is swept with constant velocity transversely across the fiber and a
measurement is done at definite time interval.

• Laser beam operating at wavelength of 632nm.

• Laser beam from the He-Ne laser source is collimated using two lenses G1 & G2.
• It is then reflected from two mirrors M1 & M2.
 • The mirror M2 is fixed to a galvanometer which makes it to rotate through a small angle at a
constant angular velocity.
𝑑∅
• The mirror velocity is noted by means of galvanometer.
𝑑𝑡
• The reflected light from mirror M2 is focused in the plane of the fiber by a lens and the shadow is
made to fall on photo detector.
𝑑𝑠
• The velocity of the fiber shadow is noted as 𝑑𝑡 which is directly proportional to the mirror velocity

• The width of the pulse is calculated using time interval detector.

• The electrical pulse width we of the shadow is related to the fiber outer diameter d0 as given
below

• The fiber outer diameter thus determined is then recorded on the printer.

Cut off Wavelength Measurements:

• Multimode fiber has many cut-off wavelengths because the number of bound propagating modes
is usually large.

• The number of guided modes is given by,

𝜋𝑎 2 2
𝑀𝑔 = ( ) (𝑛1 − 𝑛22 )
𝜆

• a-Core radius
• n1-Core refractive index
• n2-Cladding refractive index

• The cut-off wavelength of a LP11 mode is the maximum wavelength for which the mode is guided
by the fiber.
 • A graph is plotted with wavelength along x-axis and bends attenuation along y-axis.
• The effective cut-off wavelength λce is determined from the graph, which is the longest
wavelength at which bend attenuation αb (λ) equals 0.1dB.

Fiber attenuation measurements:

• Fiber attenuation measurement techniques are used to determine the total fiber attenuation loss
due to both absorption losses and scattering losses.
• The common techniques used are
o Cut-back method
o Insertion loss method and
o Optical time domain Reflectometers(OTDRs) trace
Cut-back method:
• Cutback technique is a destructive method of measuring attenuation.
• It requires access to both ends of fiber for measuring an attenuation

• To find transmission loss, the optical power is measured at the output (far end) of fiber.
• Then without disturbing the input condition, the fiber is cut-off few meters from the source and
output power at near end is measured.
• Let PF and PN are the output powers at far end and near ends of fiber respectively.
• Then attenuation in dB per km is given by
10 𝑃𝑁
𝛼(𝑑𝐵/𝑘𝑚) = log
𝐿 𝑃𝐹
𝐿 − 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠 (𝑖𝑛 𝑘𝑚)

Insertion loss method:

• Cut-back method cannot be used for cables with connectors.

• Hence insertion loss method is used. This is less-accurate than cut back method.
• The launching system is mainly used to launch the light signal into an optical fiber.
• The launch system and detector is a coupling which is made through connectors.
• For multimode fibers, a mode scrambler is used and
• For single mode fibers, cladding mode stripper is used to allow only fundamental mode to
propagate along the fiber.

𝑑𝐵 𝑃1 (𝜆)
𝛼 ( ) = 10𝑙𝑜𝑔
𝑘𝑚 𝑃2 (𝜆)

𝑃1 (𝜆) − 𝑙𝑎𝑢𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃2 (𝜆) − 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙

• This attenuation is the sum of the loss of the cabled fiber and the connector between the launch
connector and cables.

Dispersion Measurements:

• When light pulses travel along a fiber, the width of the pulses get broadened. This broadening of
pulses is called dispersion. This is because the light pulses spread as they propagate along the
length of the fiber. It causes overlapping of pulses leading to Intersymbol Interference (ISI) which
limits information carrying capacity of fiber.
• There are two different types of dispersion in optical fibers: intra-modal dispersion and
intermodal dispersion.
• Intra-modal or chromatic dispersion occurs in all types of fibers
• Intermodal dispersion occurs only in multimode fibers
• There are two types of intra-modal dispersion: material dispersion and waveguide dispersion

Time-domain Intermodal Dispersion Measurements:

• Narrow optical pulse is injected into one end of the fiber and broadened output is detected at the
other end.
• The power emitted from laser source varies for different modes. To make it uniform mode
scrambler is used.
• One end of the fiber under test is connected to mode scrambler and other end is connected to
optical sampling oscilloscope which has inbuilt APD detector.
• The width of the optical pulse is measured.

Pout(t)= h(t) * Pin(t)

• Then test fiber is replaced with short reference fiber which is lesser in length than test fiber and
the width of the pulse is measured. The relative pulse amplitude for different pulse width
parameter is measured.
• Variable delay is used to adjust the difference in delay between test fiber and short reference fiber.

Frequency Domain measurements:

Power Launching and Coupling:
In an optical fiber link, the two major system criteria are
o How to launch optical power into a particular fiber from source and
o How to couple optical power from one fiber into another fiber.

Mechanical Misalignment:

• Radiation losses result from mechanical misalignments because the radiation cone of the emitting
fiber does not match the acceptance cone of the receiving fiber.

Fresnel reflection formula:

• Small amount of light reflected back to transmitted fiber

• The magnitude of radiation loss depends on the degree of misalignment.

Types:

• Lateral misalignment
• Angular misalignment
• Longitudinal misalignment
Lateral misalignment:
• Lateral or axial misalignment occurs when the axes of two fibers are separated by distance 'd

Lateral coupling efficiency:

Angular misalignment:
• Angular misalignment occurs when two fiber axes form an angle '' between fiber end faces,
which is no longer parallel

Coupling efficiency:

Longitudinal misalignment:
• Longitudinal misalignment occurs when the fibers have the same axis but have a gap s between
their end faces
Optical Fiber Splicing:

• A permanent joint formed between two individual optical fibers in the field is known as splicing.
• It is used to establish long-haul optical fiber links where smaller fiber lengths need to be joined,
and there is no requirement for repeated connection and disconnection.
• Two types-Fusion splicing and Mechanical splicing.

Fusion splicing:

• Optical fiber fusion splicing is a welded joint formed between two optical fibers.
• Fusion splicing is a permanent, low-loss, high-strength joint compared with other temporary joint
such as a mechanical splice.
• Optical fiber fusion splices play a crucial role in the optical network.

Advantages:
• Fusion splicing is very compact.
• Fusion splicing has the lowest insertion loss.
• Fusion splicing has the highest mechanical strength.
• Fusion splicing is permanent.
• Fusion splicing can withstand extreme high temperature changes.
• Fusion splicing prevents dust and other contaminants from entering the optical path
Disadvantages:
• Complex system
• Costly
V-Groove Splicing:

• V - groove splices formed by sandwiching the butted fiber ends between a V-groove glass
substrate and a flat glass retainer plate.
• The V - shaped channel can be a grooved Silicon, Plastic, Ceramic, or Metal substrate.
• The splice loss depends strongly on the fiber size and eccentricity

Elastic - tube splice:

• The elastic - tube splice is a unique device that automatically performs lateral, longitudinal and
angular alignment
• The device is made up of an elastic material. The central whole diameter is slightly smaller than
that of the fiber to be spliced and is tapered on each for easy fiber insertion.

Connectors:

• Among the different misalignment losses which misalignment loss is the dominant one?
o Axial misalignment is the prominent one.

Coupling Efficiency ():

• Coupling efficiency 𝜂𝐹 is defined as,”a measure of the amount of optical power emitted from
source that can be coupled into a fiber”
𝑃𝐹
𝜂𝐹 =
𝑃𝑆
𝑃𝐹 - Power coupled into fiber, and
𝑃𝑆 - Power emitted from light sources.
 Launching of optical power from a source into fiber depends on

o Numerical aperture
o Core size
o Refractive index profile
o Core cladding index difference of the fiber.
o Radiance & Wavelength
o Alignment between source and fiber

Law of Brightness:

• If the source emitting area is larger than the fiber core area then maximum optical power is coupled into
the fiber. This is a result of fundamental energy and radiance conservation principles. If also known as
the law of brightness.

• If the emitting area of the source is smaller than the core area, miniature lens may be placed between
the source and the fiber to improve the power -coupling efficiency

Part-A

1 Give the purpose of preamplifier? [Nov/Dec-2018]

In an optical communication system, a preamplifier is used in an optical signal receiver section
has a function of converting signal supplied from a photodiode to a voltage signal.
The main goals are to maximize the receiver sensitivity while maintain a suitable bandwidth.

2 Names the types of preamplifier? [Nov/Dec-2017]

Preamplifiers are generally used at optical fiber communication receivers. The three basic
preamplifier structures are,
o Low impedance pre-amplifiers,
o High impedance pre-amplifiers, and
o Transimpedance pre-amplifiers

3 Define quantum limit? [Nov/Dec 2013, 2018, Apr/May-2018, 2019]

For an ideal photodetector which has unity quantum efficiency and produces no dark current that
is, no election – hole pairs are generated in the absence of an optical pulse. In this condition, it is
possible to find the minimum received optical power required for a specific bit error-rate
performance in a digital system. This minimum received power level is known as the quantum
limit.
4 What are the methods employed for measuring attenuation in optical fiber? [Apr/May-2017]
The overall fiber attenuation is an important to the system designer. For determining attenuation
in fibers, three major techniques are used:
o Cutback technique,
o Insertion loss method, and
o Optical Time Domain Reflectometers (OTDRs) trace.
5 What is cutback method? [Nov/Dec-2016]
Cutback technique is a destructive method requiring access to both ends of the fibers for
measuring attenuation.
6 Define coupling efficiency?
Coupling efficiency 𝜂𝐹 is defined as,”a measure of the amount of optical power emitted from
source that can be coupled into a fiber”
𝑃𝐹
𝜂𝐹 =
𝑃𝑆
𝑃𝐹 - Power coupled into fiber, and
𝑃𝑆 - Power emitted from light sources.

7 What is fiber splicing? [Nov/Dec-2016]

A fiber splice is a permanent or semi-permanent joint between the two fibers and the process of
joining these two fibers is called as splicing. The splicing are used to create a long optical links
or in situations where a frequent connection and disconnection are not required. Splices offer
lower attenuation and lower back reflection than connectors and less expensive.

8 What are the advantages of a trans-impedance amplifier? [Nov/Dec-2011, May/June-2016]

o Wide dynamic range,
o No equalization is required,
o Less susceptible to pick up noise, cross talk,
o It is very controllable and stable and Less sensitivity

9 What are the techniques used in splicing?

Splices may be divided into three broad categories depending upon the splicing technique utilized:
o Fusion splicing (or) welding
o Mechanical splicing and Elastic tube splice

10 Compare cutback technique and insertion loss method

Cutback technique is a destructive method requiring access to both ends of the fibers for
measuring attenuation.
The optical fiber cables with connectors, where the cutback method for attenuation measurement
is not a suitable one. In this case, we can commonly uses an insertion –loss techniques
When comparing to cut back method, this is less accurate method but it gives the total attenuation
of cable in dBs.

11 Define BER [Nov/Dec-2016, Apr/May-2017]

It is defined as the ratio between number of errors (𝑁𝑒 ) occurring over a certain time interval t to
the number of pulses transmitted (𝑁𝑡 ) during this interval
𝑁𝑒 𝑁𝑒
𝐵𝐸𝑅 = =
𝑁𝑡 𝐵𝑡
Bit rate =𝐵=1/Tb

12 What are the receiver error sources? [May/June-2014, Nov/Dec-2012]

Noise is classified into Internal noise and External noise
Internal Noise: Shot noise and Thermal Noise
External Noise: Atmosphere noise and Equipment-generated noise

13 What is Inter symbol interference?

When pulse is transmitted in a given time slot, most of the pulses energy will arrive in the
corresponding time slot at the receiver. But because of pulse spreading induced by the receiver,
some of the transmitted energy will progressively spread into neighboring time slots as the pulse
propagates along the fiber. The presence of this energy in adjacent time slots results in an
interfering of the signal. This is called as Inter-Symbol-Interference.
14 Mention the lensing scheme used to improve the coupling efficiency
The lensing schemes are used to improve optical source to fiber coupling efficiency are:
o Rounded-end fiber
o Non imaging microsphere
o Image sphere
o Cylindrical lens
o Surface LED-ended fiber and Taper-ended fiber

15 What are the types of mechanical misalignment?

The three types of mechanical misalignment :
o Longitudinal misalignment
o Lateral misalignment
o Angular misalignment

Part-B

1 Explain the fiber optic receiver operation? [Nov/Dec-2011, 2014, 2015, 2017]
2 Explain the error sources associated with optical fiber receiver section [Apr/May-2011,2018]
3 Derive an expression for BER of digital receiver [Nov/Dec-2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018]
4 Explain the dispersion measurements in optical fiber [May/June-2014, Nov/Dec-2015,2017, 2019]
5 Explain the different types of attenuation measurements in fiber [Nov/Dec-2013,2016, 2019]
6 Discuss on the numerical aperture measurements of fibers[Nov/Dec-2011,2014,2018,2019]
7 Discuss about cut off wavelength measurements [Nov/Dec-2011, 2012, 2018]
8 Explain the fiber diameter measurements in optical fiber [Nov/Dec-2011,2018, Apr/May-2018]

9 Describe various fiber splicing techniques with neat diagrams [ Nov/Dec-2011,2012,2015,2019,

Apr/May-2011,2012,2019]

10 Explain the lensing scheme used to improve source to fiber coupling efficiency
[Nov/Dec-2014, 2019]