Transmission Media and Antenna Systems

MIDTERM PERIOD
Fiber Optics

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History Of Fiber Optic Communications

1800 ’s
• 1880 – Alexander Graham Bell invented and patented a photophone
• 1854 – John Tyndall discovered reflections within the water stream.
- Charles Vernon Boys manufactured glass fibers.
1950 ’s
• 1954 – Fiberscope concept was demonstrated by N.S. Kapany and term “ Fiber Optics” was
coined.

1960 ’s
• 1960 – The first LASER was demonstrated by Dr. Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research.
• 1962 - The semiconductor LASER was invented at General Electric by Dr. Robert Hall.
• 1965 – Fiber LASERS were demonstrated.
• 1966 – Charles Kao of British Telecom proposed fibers with low losses of 20dB/km.
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History Of Fiber Optic Communications

1970 ’s
• 1970 – Corning demonstrated graded-index fibers with 20 dB/km
attenuation.
• 1974 – 2 dB/km fiber was manufactured with a bandwidth of one GHz.
• 1975 – The first commercial optical fiber was manufactured by Corning.
• 1977 – Bell Northern and GTE installed commercial fiber links, and the
same year Times Fiber transmitted video over fiber.
• 1978 – Times Fiber transmitted multiple video channels over fiber

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History Of Fiber Optic Communications
1980 ’s
• 1980 – Fiber optics were used at the Winter Olympics in Lake placid, New York to transmit
video.
• 1981 – Singlemode fiber was introduced, and the FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)
standard was proposed.
• 1983 – A 1300nm singlemode system was installed by Continental Telephone Company of
New York.
• 1985 – 1500 nm singlemode systems were planned.
• 1986 – Bellcore proposed SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards. The first 16-
channel RS.250 B video systems were introduced.
• 1987 – 1.2 Gbps systems with 20,000 voice channels were introduced in the field trial.
• 1988 – FDDI standard was approved by ANSI and HDTV field trials began.
• 1989 – Bellcore began studying ATM for B-ISDN at the same time 11Gbps signals were
transmitted 260km on singlemode fiber using optical amplifiers with dispersion shifted fibers.
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History Of Fiber Optic Communications
1990 ’s
• 1990 – Fiber to the home trials began and AT&T announced its first optical computer and
General Instrument announced digital HDTV systems.
• 1991 – The FCC allow telephone companies to provide video and information services. That
same year AT&T announced 100Gbps LAN
• 1993 – MFS, a competitive acess provider, and Sprint offered the first ATM services over
SONET. A grand alliance was formed at the request of the FCC to develop digital HDTV
standards.
• 1994 – The FCC announced 43 Mbps HDTV transmission rates. Hybrid fiber coax (HFC) was
selected by the telephone and cable television industries to form broadband fiber in the loop
(FITL) applications. ATM LAN products were released and 100 Mbps was proposed.
• 1995 to 2010 - ATM-HDTV-FITL
Dense Wavelength Division multiplexing (DWDM) will come into use. OC systems will be
used and impact of Internet will be recognized.
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Wavelength

An electromagnetic wave is a wave of radiation identified by

individual fluctuations of electric and magnetic fields. All electromagnetic
waves move at the speed of light. The top of each wave is called the crest.
Wavelength is the measure of distance between wave crests.
Wavelength is often stated in
• MICRONS (µm) = 10-6 meters
• NANOMETER (nm) = 10-9 meters
• ANGSTROM (A)= 10-10 meters

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Properties Of Light

Light is an electromagnetic radiation detectable by the eye, ranging in

wavelength from about 390 to 770 nm. It is produced by atoms and
molecules that are vibrating in a higher energy state and then suddenly drop
to a lower energy state, giving off a wave packet or photon of light.
The light frequency spectrum can be divided into 3 general bands.
• INFRARED – 770nm to 100,000nm
• VISIBLE – 390nm to 770nm
• ULTRAVIOLET – 10nm to 390 nm

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Properties Of Light

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Wave Properties Of Light

REFLECTION
is the change in direction of a wave front at an interface between two
different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it
originated.

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Wave Properties Of Light

REFRACTION
is the change in direction of a wave due
to a change in its speed. This is most
commonly observed when a wave passes
from one medium to another at any angle
other than 90° or 0°. Refraction of light is
the most commonly observed
phenomenon, but any type of wave can
refract when it interacts with a medium

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Wave Properties Of Light

DIFFRACTION
is the bending or spreading out of waves as they pass around the edge of
an obstacle or through a narrow aperture.

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Wave Properties Of Light

ABSORPTION
is the reduction in the intensity of radiated energy within a medium
caused by converting some or all of the energy into another form.

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Wave Properties Of Light

• DISPERSION
is the separation of visible light or other electromagnetic waves into
different wavelengths

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Particle Nature Of Light
Light behaves as though if were made up of very small particles called photons:
• Energy in every single photon:

1.241
E( J )  hf E( eV ) 
Where: 
h = Planck’s constant
= 6.625 x 10-34 Js
f = frequency (Hz)
λ = wavelength (µm)

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Example

A 100-W light bulb radiates energy at a rate of 100 J/s. If

all of the emitted light has a wavelength of 525 nm, how
many photons are emitted per second?

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Example

Find the number of photons incident on a detector in 1

second if the optic power is 1 µW and wavelength is 0.8
µm?

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Example

A nitrogen gas laser pulse with a wavelength of 338 nm

contains 3.83 mJ of energy. How many photons does it
contain?

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Example

What is the energy of a photon having a wavelength of 0.5

µm?

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Example

The energy if a photon is 2.59 eV, Find its frequency and

wavelength.

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Seatwork

1. The energy of a photon is 10-8 J. Find its frequency and wavelength.

2. Calculate the energy of a photon of radiation whose frequency is 5x1014
Hz
3. Calculate the energy of a photon of radiation that has a wavelength of
3.3µm
4. The red light from a helium-neon laser has a wavelength of 633 nm.
What is the energy of one photon?

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Advantages Of Optical Fiber Cables

• Wider bandwidth and greater information capacity.

• Immunity to crosstalk
• Immunity to static interference
• Environmental Immunity
• Safety and Convenience
• Lower transmission Loss
• Security
• Durability and Reliability

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Disadvantages Of Optical Fiber Cables

• Interfacing Costs
• Strength
• Remote Electrical power
• Optical Fiber cables are more susceptible to losses introduced by bending
cables
• Specialized tools, training and equipment

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Fiber vs Copper

• 24 fiber
• 24,192 voice channels (135mbps)
• 380,072 voice channels (2.488 Gbps)
• 0.559 inch Outer Diameter
• 176 lbs per Kilometer

• 900 pairs copper cable

• 21,600 voice channels
• 3 inch Outer Diameter
• 16,000 lbs per Kilometer
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Elements Of Optical Fiber Construction
An optical fiber is made of three parts:

• The first, or outer layer, is the buffer coating. It provides strength to support the
bending or mechanical stress and is usually made of silicon plastic or acrolyte.

• Just beneath the buffer coating is a layer called the cladding, which is usually
made of 100% silica.

• The innermost part, the core, also made of silica, but it is doped with certain
impurities to provide a higher refractive index than the cladding

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Elements Of Optical Fiber Construction
The following are the commonly used types of optical fiber:

• Plastic Core and Cladding

• Glass Core with Plastic Cladding
(PCS fiber – Plastic-Clad Silica)
• Glass Core and Glass Cladding
(SCS fiber – Silica-Clad Silica)

Note: Fiber Optics generally use 850, 1300

or 1500 nm wavelengths for signal transmission

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Types Of Optical Fiber

Singlemode Fiber
it has a core diameter of 8-9 µm or microns and an outside diameter of
125 microns

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Types Of Optical Fiber

Multimode Fiber
It has a core diameter of 62.5 microns and like single mode, has an outside
diameter of 125 microns

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 OPTICAL FIBER SPLICING EQUIPMENT

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Optical Fiber Communication Link

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Optical Confinement In A Fiber

• CRITICAL ANGLE – Defined as the minimum angle of incidence at

which a light ray may strike the interface of two media and results in an
angle of refraction of 90 degrees or greater.

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Optical Confinement In A Fiber

• SNELL’S LAW – This law was

named after Dutch mathematician
Willebrord Snell, states that the
product of the refractive index and the
sine of the angle of incidence of a ray
in one medium is equal to the product
of the refractive index and the sine of
the angle of refraction in a successive
medium.

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Snell’s Law

Other Relation General Solution

In terms of VP2 sin  2

Propagation velocity 
VP1 sin 1
In terms of velocity V f2 sin  2
factor 
V f1 sin 1
In terms of r1 sin 2 2

dielectric constant r2 sin 21

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Optical Confinement In A Fiber

• INDEX OF REFRACTION - The refractive index of a substance

measures how the substance affects light traveling through it. It is equal to
the speed of light in a vacuum divided by the speed of light in a substance

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9/27/2019 35
Optical Confinement In A Fiber

• INDEX PROFILE - A graphical representation of the value of the

refractive index across the fiber.

• NUMERICAL APERTURE - The figure of merit used to describe the

light gathering or light collecting ability of an optical fiber.

NA  n1  n2
2 2

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Optical Confinement In A Fiber

• ACCEPTANCE ANGLE or ACCEPTANCE CONE HALF ANGLE -

The maximum angle in which the external light rays may strike the
air/fiber interface and still propagate down the fiber.

 MAX  sin 1 ( NA)  sin 1 n1  n2

2 2

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Optical Confinement In A Fiber

• FRACTIONAL INDEX CHANGE - the normalized difference between

the index of the core and cladding.

General Solution Approximate Solution

n1  n2
2 2
n1  n2
   
2n1
2 n1

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 OPTICAL FIBER WAVEGUIDES
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 Single-Mode Step-Index Fiber

Maximum radius for Single Mode Propagation (V = 2.405)

General Solution Alternative Solution

0.383 0.383
rmax  rmax 
NA n1 2

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Multimode Step-Index Fiber

Normalized Frequency (V-parameter)

General Solution Alternative Solution

where:
Nm – number of modes
d d Nf - Normalized Frequency (V-Parameter)
Nf  NA Nf  n1 2
 
d – Core diameter

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Typical Step-Index Fiber Characteristics
CONSTRUCTION n1 n2 NA α Δ

All Plastic 1.49 1.41 0.48 29.0° 0.0540

PCS 1.46 1.40 0.41 24.2° 0.0410
SCS 1.48 1.46 0.24 13.9° 0.0135

Number of Modes (Nm)

1

2
Nm Nf
2

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Multimode Graded-Index Fiber

The graded-index core fiber has a core material whose refractive index
varies with distance from the fiber.

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Example

A fiber has an index of refraction of 1.6 for the core and 1.4
for the cladding. Calculate the following:
a. Critical angle
b. θ2 if θ1 = 30°
c. θ2 if θ1 = 70°
d. numerical aperture
e. maximum angle of acceptance

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Example

Calculate the resulting deviation from the normal line for a

light signal that travels from air to glass to diamond if the
striking angle is 38°.

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Example

Calculate the maximum core radius to support single mode

operation for a fiber with a NA of 0.15 and λ = 0.82µm.

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Example

What striking angle in the fiber surface is needed to

produce a minimum angle of incidence (critical angle)
between the core-clad boundary that will effectively
confine the light signals within the fiber if n1 = 1.55 and n2
= 1.45?

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Example

Compute the number of modes for a fiber whose core

diameter is 50 µm. Assume that n1 = 1.48, n2 = 1.46 and λ
= 0.82 µm

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Example

Calculate the Rayleigh scattering loss in dB for a 50/125

step-index fiber operating at 1200nm. Also compute for
the attenuation in neper.

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Example

Consider an 8/125 single mode fiber operating at 1300nm

with loss of 0.8 dB/km. The line width of the source is
0.013 nm. Calculate the ratio of the Brillouin scattering
threshold to the Raman scattering threshold.

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Example

Calculate the critical radius curvature for a multimode

50/125 fiber with a NA of 0.2 n2 of 1.48 and operating at
850 nm.

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Optical Fiber Losses

Absorption
• Material Absorption
• Ultraviolet Absorption
• Infrared Absorption
• Ion Resonance Absorption
• Hydrogen Effects
• Material Absorption

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Optical Fiber Losses
Scattering Losses
Occurs when a wave interacts with a particle in a way that removes
energy in the directional propagating wave and transfer it to other
directions.

a. Linear Scattering
• Rayleigh Scattering
• Mie Scattering
b. Non Linear Scattering
• Brillouin Scattering
• Raman Scattering

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Scattering Losses

0.887
• Rayleigh Scattering RL dB   10 log
4

PBS  (17.6 x10 3 )(rc )(2 )( )( f L )

2
• Brillouin Scattering

• Raman Scattering PRS  (23.6 x10 2 )(rc )(2 )( )

2

where
fL 
c
 
 2

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Scattering Losses
where:
RL – Rayleigh Scattering Loss (dB)
λ - signal wavelength in (µm)
PBS – Brillouin Scattering (Watts)
rc – core radius in (µm)
α – signal attenuation (dB/km)
fL – line frequency in (GHz)
Δλ - - 3dB wavelength (line or spectral width) in (nm)
PRS – Raman Scattering (Watts)
rcritical – critical radius of curvature in (µm)
CL – Coupling loss (dB)
θ – Misallignment angle in (rad)
no – refractive index of material filling the groove (unitless)

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Optical Fiber Losses

Macrobending
Refers to a large scale bending, such as that which occurs intentionally when
wrapping the fiber on a spool or pulling it around a corner.

Microbending
Occurs when a fiber is sheathed within a protective cable. The stresses set
up in cabling process cause small axial distortions to appear randomly
along the fiber.

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Critical Radius of Curvature

3n2  0.24n2 
rcritical  
4 ( NA)
3
3 NA

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Optical Fiber Losses

Connector Losses
Occurs when a wave interacts with a particle in a way that removes energy
in the directional propagating wave and transfer it to other directions.
a. Lateral Misalignment
• Lateral misalignment loss is simply due to the non-overlap of the
transmitting and receiving fiber cores.
b. Angular Misalignment
• Coupling Loss

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Coupling Loss

 no 
C L ( dB)  10 log 1  
 NA 

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Pulse Spreading In Fiber

Dispersion
• Refers to the spreading (in time domain) of light pulses as it propagates down
the fiber end.
1. Material Dispersion
• Pulse at different wavelengths has different velocities.

t MAT
DM x  
 km

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Pulse Spreading In Fiber

2. Waveguide Dispersion
• Pulses at different wavelengths but propagating in the same mode must travel at
slightly different angles.
• Also known as Chromatic Dispersion

tWAVE
DW x  
 km

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Pulse Spreading In Fiber

3. Modal Dispersion
• A pulses at a single wavelength splits power into modes that travel at different
axial velocities because of the path differences.
• Also known as Modal Delay Spreading

Ln1  Ln1
t MODAL  x 
c 1  c

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Pulse Spreading In Fiber

Total Dispersion
• At any wavelength the total dispersion is the root mean square combination of
material, modal and waveguide dispersion.

tTOTAL  t MAT  t MODAL  tWAVE

2 2 2

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Pulse Spreading In Fiber
where:

DM – Dispersive coefficient in ps/nm-km

DW – Peak Waveguide dispersive coefficient in ps/nm-km
6.6ps/nm-km
λ - signal wavelength in (µm)
ΔtMAT – material dispersion (ns)
ΔtWAVE – waveguide dispersion (ns)
α – signal attenuation (dB/km)
ΔtMODAL – modal dispersion (ns)
Δλ – (- 3dB) wavelength (line or spectral width) in (nm)
ΔtTOTAL – Total Dispersion (ns)
L – length of optical fiber (km)

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Reflection

1. Reflection Coefficient
• The ratio of the reflected electric field to the incident electric field.

n1  n2
 
n1  n2

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Reflection

2. Reflectance (R)
• The ratio of the reflected beam intensity to the incident beam
intensity.

 n1  n2 
R   
2

R 
nn 1 3  n2 
2 2

 n1  n2  n n 1 3  n2 
2 2

for uncoated fiber for coated fiber

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Reflection

3. Brewster Angle (θB)

• Named after British physicist David Brewster, the reflectance of the
component vibrating parallel to the plane of incidence is zero. At
this point of incidence, the reflected ray would be perpendicular to
the refracted ray, and the tangent of this angle of incidence is equal
to the refractive index of the second medium if the first medium is
air.
n2
 B  tan 1

n1

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 Receiver Rise Time And Bandwidth

1. Rise Time
• The rise time is the time for the detector output (e.g. current) to
change from 10 to 90% of its final value when the optic input power
variation is a step.

ts  ttx  t f  t rx
2 2 2

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 Receiver Rise Time And Bandwidth

2. Maximum Data Rate

1 1
UPRZ fb  fb 
2t s 2t

1 1
fb  fb 
UPNRZ ts t

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 Receiver Rise Time And Bandwidth

3. Bandwidth

0.35
Electrical BWe 
t

Optical BWo  2 x BWe

1
BWo 
2t

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 Receiver Rise Time And Bandwidth

4. Bandwidth-Distance Product

1
BW x   x  km
2t

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 Receiver Rise Time And Bandwidth
where:
BWxι – Bandwidth Distance Product θB – Brewster Angle in (degrees)
BWO – Optical Bandwidth R – Reflectance (unitless)
BWe – Electrical Bandwidth UPRZ- Unipolar Return to Zero
UPNRZ – Unipolar Non Return to Zero
ttx – source rise time (ns)
trx – receiver rise time (ns)
tf – fiber rise time (ns)
ts – system rise time (ns)
fb – maximum data rate (Mbps)
Δλ – (- 3dB) wavelength - line or spectral width in (nm)

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Example

Calculate the critical radius of curvature for a multimode

50/125 fiber with an NA of 0.2, n2 of 1.48 and operating at
850nm?

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Example

Calculate the coupling loss for a fiber facility with a

misalignment angle of 2.4 degrees and 0.24 NA.

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Example

For a step index fiber 12.5 km long is to be used with

0.8µm light source with a spectral width of 1.5nm. What
value of material dispersion might be expected assuming
DM = 0.15ns/nm-km

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Example

A 12.5 km single mode fiber is used with a 1.3µm light

source which has a spectrum width of 6nm. Find the total
expected waveguide dispersion.

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Example

Consider a 12.5 km 50/125 step index fiber with n1 = 1.47

and Δ = 1.5%. Calculate the group delay (modal
dispersion) for this fiber at an operating wavelength of
850 nm.

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Example

6. A single mode fiber operating at 1.3µm is found to

have a total material dispersion of 2.81 ns and a total
waveguide dispersion of 0.495 ns. Determine the receive
pulse width approximate bit rate for the fiber if the
transmitted pulse has a width of 1.5.ns ?

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Example

A fiber optic uses a detector with a rise time of 1.5 ns and a

source with a rise time of 4ns. If an RZ code is used with
a data rate of 100 Mbps over a distance of 20 km,
calculate the maximum acceptable dispersion for the fiber
and the equivalent BW distance product.

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Example

Calculate the reflectance for an air to glass interface

assuming the refractive index of glass is 1.5.

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Example

Determine the refractive index of a coating layer place

between fibers whose index is 1.5 and 1.57 respectively,
to produce a zero reflectance.

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Example

Find the Brewster angle for the air to glass and glass to air
interface.

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Diode Light Sources

• 1. Light Emitting Semiconductors

Material Wavelength Bandgap
Range (µm) Energy (eV)
GaAs 0.9 1.4

AlGaAs 08 – 0.9 1.4 – 1.55

InGaAs 1.0 – 1.3 0.95 – 1.24

InGaAsP 0.9 – 1.7 0.73 – 1.35

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Diode Light Sources

2. Typical Characteristics of Diode Light Sources

Property LED Laser Diode Single Mode
Laser Mode
Spectral Width (nm) 20 - 100 1-5 0.2

Rise Time (ns) 2 - 250 0.1 - 1 0.05 – 1

Bandwidth 300 2000 6000

Coupling Efficiency Very low Moderate High

Lifetime (hours) 105 104 - 105 104 - 105

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Diode Light Detectors

1. Typical Characteristic of Diode Light Detectors

Material Structure Rise Time Wavelength Responsitivity

(ns) (nm) (A/W)
Silicon PIN 0.5 300-1100 0.5
Germanium PIN 0.1 500-1800 0.7
InGaAs PIN 0.3 900-1700 0.6
Silicon APD 0.5 400-1000 75
InGaAs APD 0.25 1000-1700 12

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Diode Light Detectors

2. Quantum Efficiency

e

p
3. Responsitivity – The ratio of the output current of the detector to its
optic input current.
I q
Rs  Rs  
P E
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Diode Light Detectors

4. Radiance
p
r
A
5. Irradiance

p
ir 
A

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Diode Light Detectors
where:
e – number of emitted electrons r – radiance (mW/st-cm2)
p – number of incident photons Ω – solid angle in steradians (st)
A – aperture area of light source in (cm2)
η – efficiency
ir – irradiance in (W/cm2)
Rs - Responsitivity (A/W)
I – current (A)
q – charge of an electron (1.6 x 10-19 C) P – power (W)
E – energy of incident photon (h x f)
h = Planck’s constant 6.625 x 10-34 Js

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Measurement of Light
QUANTITY Symbol SI Unit Abbr. Remarks
Luminous Flux F lumen lm Luminous
power

Luminous Energy Qv lumen-sec lm.s Units are

sometimes
called talbots
Luminous Intensity Iv candela lm/sr ---------

Luminance Lv Candela/m2 cd/m2 also called

luminosity

Illuminance Ev Lux/m2 lm/m2 Used for light

incidence on
surface

Luminous Emittance Mv Lux/m2 lm/m2 Used for light

incidence on
surface

Luminous Efficacy K Lumen/W lm/W Ratio of

luminous flux to
radiant flux

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Radiometry Units

QUANTITY Symbol SI Unit Abbr. Remarks

Radiant Energy Q Joule J Energy

Radiant Intensity I W/steradian W.sr-1 Power per unit

solid angle

Irradiance E W/sq. meter W.m2 Power incident

on a surface

Radiant Flux Φe Watt W Radiant energy

per unit time

Radiance L W/ster/sq m. W.sr-1.m-2 Power emitted

from surface

Spectral Radiance Lλ W/ster. cu m. W.sr-1.m-3

Spectral Irradiance Eλ w/ cu m. W.m-3
Radiant Emittance M W/ sq. m. W.m2

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Example

Compute the responsitivity of a detector having a quantum

efficiency of 1% at 0.8µm?

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La Sallian Prayer

“I will continue, O my God,

to do all my actions for the love of Thee.”
St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us.
Live Jesus in our hearts, forever.

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