PLC Optical Splitters

Optical splitter is the core of FTTH optical devices. It contains great growth potential and will become the main driver for the growth of the FTTX market. It will undoubtedly bring vitality and challenges to the optical communication manufacturing industry, and also provide optical communication enterprises. Bring another space for rapid development. This paper summarizes the PLC splitter market, industry situation and technology development status. The development of PLC chip, optical fiber array and coupling packaging technology is analyzed briefly.

PLC Optical Splitter

Realize multimedia transmission such as FTTC (fiber to the curb), FTTB (fiber to the building), FTTH (fiber to the home), FTTD (fiber to the desktop), triple play (voice network, data network, cable TV network) and PDS ( Integrated wiring system) scheme. In order to build an all-fiber network, in addition to the need for a variety of structural distribution cables and introduction cables to realize the connection and redistribution of the optical network, in the E-PON and G-PON technologies, a large number of optical splitters are also required to complete the final completion. The purpose of fiber to the home.

The FTTx system consists of three parts: central office equipment (OLT), user terminal equipment (ONU), and optical distribution network (ODN). As an important part of the FTTx system, the ODN is the optical transmission physical channel between the OLT and the ONU. It is usually composed of optical fiber cables, optical connectors, optical splitters, and supporting equipment for installing and connecting these devices. From the ODF rack in the central office room to the feeder section of the optical cable distribution point, it is used as the backbone optical cable to achieve long-distance coverage; from the optical cable distribution point to the user access point, the distribution of optical fibers is carried out to the user area along the feeder cable. ;User access point to the terminal is completed by the butterfly drop cable, and all branch and contact connections are completed by the optical splitter and realize the fiber to the home.

Optical splitter is the core of FTTH optical devices. It contains great growth potential and will become the main driver for the growth of the FTTX market. It will undoubtedly bring vitality and challenges to the optical communication manufacturing industry, and also provide optical communication enterprises. Bring another space for rapid development. According to the arrival of the access network construction boom, it is beyond reproach that the PLC optical splitter will become the main force in the PON market from the current stage of the market and the development trend of future demand. Features are the focus of future market demand.

3. Development of PLC (optical splitter) technology

Low cost and high reliability are the basic requirements for optical splitting devices in FTTH engineering. Optical splitters for optical communication can be mainly divided into two types: optical fiber fusion taper type and planar integrated optical waveguide type.

Fiber fusion taper technology is the most mature technology for making 2´2 optical splitters. Optical splitters are currently mainly all-fiber optical splitters. The main features are: mature technology and easy connection with optical fibers , the insertion loss is small. However, with the increase of the number of power splits, for example, optical power splitters with a size of more than 1×8 have large volume, low efficiency, high cost, and poor light splitting uniformity. In addition, the characteristics of the optical fiber splitter based on the fusion taper technology have great limitations in terms of passband and other characteristics.

PLCs are based on integrated optics in planar technology. Different from traditional discrete devices, it is made by semiconductor technology, which can integrate optical components with different functions into one chip, which is the basic process technology to realize the integration, scale and miniaturization of optoelectronic devices. Compared with the fusion taper technology, the planar waveguide technology has the remarkable characteristics of stable performance, low cost and suitable for large-scale production. Therefore, in the future fiber-to-the-home systems will no longer use fiber fusion taper optical power division devices, and planar waveguides provide an effective way for the production of high-performance, low-cost optical devices for access networks.