Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) Based Optic Power Splitter

In a power-splitting PON, an optical power splitter is the passive device in the outside
plant that physically connects to the CO with a feeder fiber. It also connects to a
number of ONUs via a series of distribution fibers. In the past few years, significant
improvements in reliability, cost per port, insertion loss, and splitting-ratio
nonuniformity, have been demonstrated with planar lightwave circuit (PLC)-based
splitters. Central to the splitter is a PLC chip comprising of optical waveguides
fabricated on a planar substrate, typically made of silicon or quartz, to form a cascade
of Y-branches. For a 1 splitter, one side of the PLC chip is aligned to a fiber
whereas the opposite side is aligned to an array of PON is typically N = 16 and N =
325, but with an increasing demand of up to N = 64 thereby making the alignment
of the fiber array to the PLC chip more challenging. Compared to fused
biconical-taper-based splitters, PLC technology allows for chip-size devices with the
potential of integrating multiple functions, e.g. WDM coupler, onto a single clip. It
also enables a more uniform loss over a wide operating range of wavelengths from
1250 nm to 1625 nm, and operaton of a wide range of temeratures from -40 to +
80. Figure 3.2 illustrates the measured insertion losses from samples of 1x32
optical splitter approved by AT&T Labs for use in the Project Lightspeed FTTH trial,
showing uniform loss over a wide wavelength range.
Aside from uniform loss, the insertion loss of PLC splitters is another important
parameter in network implementations that will influence system performance and the
overall coast per drop. Lower insertion loss PLC slitters will extend the reach and
number of customers that can be accommodated within the same PON, yielding
higher revenue per PON for service providers. Aside of the theoretical splitting loss
attributed to the division of optical power at the input port equally into N output ports,
and given by the fromula:
Theoretical splitting loss (dB) = 10 log10(1/N)
A PLC splitter suffers from excess insertion loss from fiber array alignment to the
PLC chip, fiber array uniformity caused by pitch and depth inaccuracies in the
v-grooves of fiber array block that holds the fiber array, splitting ratio uniformity
caused by imperfections in the PLC chip due to manufacturing, inherent chip material
loss, and inherent chip material loss, and connector loss. The targeted areas for
improvement of insertion loss in PLC splitters have been in reducing connector losses,
and improving fiber array and splitting ration-nonuniformity. The connector loss can
be improved from 0.5 dB trough using high quality ferrules and an excellent polishing
method. With advances in manufacturing process of the fiber array block and PLC
chip, insertion losses from fiber array nonuniformity and splitting-ratio nouniformity
can be reduced from 0.7 dB to 0.4 dB and 1.8 dB to 1.0 dB, respectively. Collectively,
the excess insertion losses of PLC splitters are currently 1 - 1.5 dB above the ideal
theoretical splitting loss with a nonuniformity within 2 dB over the specified range of
operating wavelengths from 1250 nm to 1625 nm.

Fiber optical splitter is used to split the fiber optic light into several parts at a certain
ratio . The fiber optic splitter is an important passive component used in PON FTTX
networks. There are mainly two kinds of passive FTTH optical splitters: one is the
traditional fused type splitter as known as FBT coupler or FBT WDM optical splitter,
which features competitive price; the other is the PLC splitter based on the PLC
(Planar Lightwave Circuit) technology, which has a compact size and suits for density
applications. The common PLC Splitters configurations are 1x4, 1x8, 1x16, 1x32,
1x64 and 1x128, but 2x4, 2x8, 2x16, 2x32 configurations are also
available. Fiberstore singlemode& multimode FBT optical splitter comes in a wide
range of split ratios with single/double/three windows. The main packages include
box type and stainless tube type. The former is usually used with 2mm or 3mm outer
diameter cable, while the latter is usually used with 0.9mm outer diameter cable. Our
optical splitter can be terminated with your choice of connectors or installed in rack
mount modules. Please contact us for the special customized needs.