Classification of Optical Fiber Splitter

According to the principle, the optical fiber splitter can be divided into two types: fused fiber splitter and PLC splitter. The fused fiber splitter is composed of two or more fibers by side fusion. The planar light wave circuit is a kind of micro optical component product. It uses lithography technology to form optical waveguide on the dielectric or semiconductor substrate to realize the branch distribution function. The principle of these two types of splitter is similar. They can achieve different branching by changing the evanescent field coupling (coupling degree, coupling length) and the fiber radius.

 

 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Fused Fiber Splitter

Fused fiber splitter is a special waveguide structure. By controlling the angle of fiber twist and the length of fiber stretch, different splitting ratios can be obtained.

 

Fused fiber splitter has more than 20 years of history and production experience, many devices and technologies are very mature, and the development cost is only a tenth of that of the PLC splitter.

 

The raw materials for this kind of splitter are quartz base plate, optical fibers, heat-shrinkable tubes, stainless steel tubes and glue, which are of low cost, and the investment depreciation fee for production equipment is lower. 

 

1. The splitter's splitting ratio can be monitored in real time as needed, and unequal splitters can be made. 

 

2. The loss of this splitter is sensitive to light wavelength, so the device needs to be selected according to the wavelength. Usually, the available wavelength signal is limited.

 

3. The uniformity of this splitter is poor.

 

4. The insertion loss of this splitter varies with temperature.

 

 

Advantages and Disadvantages of PLC splitter

PLC splitter is an integrated waveguide optical power distribution device based on quartz substrates. Like coaxial cable transmission system, optical network system also needs to couple, branch and distribute optical signals, which requires an optical fiber splitter to achieve. PLC splitter is one of the most important passive devices in optical link. It is a fiber junction device with multiple inputs and outputs. It is especially suitable for connecting local and terminal devices in passive optical network (EPON, GPON, BPON, etc.) and splitting optical signals.

 

1. The loss of this splitter is insensitive to the wavelength of transmitted light and can meet the transmission needs of different wavelengths (1260-1650nm). 

 

2. The splitter distributes the signals evenly to the user.

 

3. This splitter is small in size and can be installed directly in existing junction boxes without the need for special design to leave a lot of installation space. 

 

4. This kind of splitter has many splitting channels, which can reach more than 32 channels.

 

5. The more splitting channels there are, the lower the cost of each splitting channel.

 

6. The parts needed for this kind of splitter are manufactured with complex technology and high technical requirements. Its chips are monopolized by several companies, and a small number of companies are able to package and produce such splitters in large quantities.

 

7. The cost of this splitter is higher than that of fused fiber splitter, especially when there are fewer splitting channels.

 

8. This kind of splitter cannot make unequal splitters. 

 

The above is the introduction of the classification of optical fiber splitters. When choosing a high quality optical fiber splitter, you need to choose it according to your actual needs in order to get the maximum benefits.