2016年9月24日星期六

FBT Splitters vs. PLC Splitters: What Are the Differences?

Fiber optic splitters play an increasingly significant role in many of today’s optical network topologies. They provide capabilities that help users maximize the functionality of optical network circuits from FTTx systems to traditional optical networks. And usually they are placed in the central office or in one of the distribution points (outdoor or indoor). This article will tell something about optical splitters.

What Is Fiber Optic Splitter?
 
A fiber optic splitter is a passive optical device that can split or separate an incident light beam into two or more light beams. These beams may or may not have the same optical power as the original beam, based on the configuration of the splitter. By means of construction, the outputs of a splitter can have varying degrees of throughput, which is highly beneficial when designing optical networks, whether the splitter is used for network monitoring or for a loss budget in a passive optical network (PON) architecture. Generally, there are two types of fiber optic splitters, which are FBT (fused biconical taper) splitters and PLC (planar lightwave circuit) splitters.

fiber opitc splitter
 
FBT Splitters
 
FBT is the traditional technology in which two fibers are placed closely together, typically twisted around each other and fused together by applying heat while the assembly is being elongated and tapered. A signal source controls the desired coupling ratio. The fused fibers are protected by a glass substrate and then protected by a stainless steel tube, typically 3 mm diameter by 54 mm long. FBT splitters are widely accepted and used in passive optical networks. The following picture shows a 1×2 FBT splitter single-mode three window fiber splitter with ABS box.

FBT splitter
 
PLC Splitters
 
The PLC splitters are used to separate or combine optical signals. A PLC is a micro-optical component based on planar lightwave circuit technology and provides a low cost light distribution solution with small form factor and high reliability. PLCs are manufactured using silica glass waveguide circuits that are aligned with a v-groove fiber array chip that uses ribbon fiber. Once everything is aligned and bonded, it is then packaged inside a miniature housing. PLC splitters have high quality performance, such as low insertion loss, low PDL, high return loss, etc. The following is a picture of 1×8 blockless PLC splitter.

PLC splitter
 
Comparison Between FBT Splitters and PLC Splitters
 
The differences between FBT splitters and PLC splitters are described in the following table.

FBT vs. PLC 

In a word, the FBT splitters have lower costs but restricted to the operating wavelength, and the maximum insertion loss will vary depending on the split and increase substantially for those splits over 1:8. While the PLC splitters, with higher costs, have equal splitter ratios for all branches as well as low failure rate.

FS.COM Fiber Optic Splitters Solution
 
As a leading supplier in fiber optic communication industry, FS.COM provides various kinds of PLC splitters and FBT splitters. Moreover, our fiber optic splitter quality and performance is not only guaranteed by using high-quality components and stringent manufacturing processes and equipment, but also by adherence to a successful quality assurance program, which can be checked in “FS.COM Quality Assurance Program for PLC Splitter”. For more details, you can visit www.fs.com.

1 条评论:

  1. IQRA Technologies Ltd. was established in 2019 in Bangladesh. We are focused on wholesale and also on the retail business of PLC Splitter.

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