KR100385284B1 - Optical powermeter - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is an optical power meter with a function for improving the working speed. The optical power meter of the present invention includes: a function for negatively expressing an average power for a certain period of time in order to improve the working speed, and a guide capable of directly receiving an optical fiber whose primary coating is peeled off and cleaving is completed. It is the biggest feature to have. According to the optical power meter of the present invention, the optical power measured by the optical power meter can be easily understood through the voice without the user visually confirming, thereby facilitating the work in the workspace where the field of view cannot be secured. In addition, the output of light from the stripped optical fiber as well as the optical fiber with a connector attached to the end can be easily measured, so the operator does not have to make unnecessary efforts to attach the connector to the optical fiber end, thereby reducing the working time.

Description

Optical power meter {Optical powermeter}

The present invention relates to a device for measuring the power of light, and more particularly to an optical power meter having a function for improving the working speed.

Optical power meters, known as devices for measuring the power of light, have a wide variety of shapes and functions depending on their purpose of use. One example is disclosed in US Pat. No. 5,521,701 to Felger et al. On May 28, 1996. 1 is a front view of an optical power meter according to the invention disclosed in US Pat. No. 5,521,701. Referring to FIG. 1, optical power measuring modules 3 and 5 having different purpose of use are mounted on the main body 2 of the optical power meter 1. Each module receives external light through the connectors 7 and 11 and transmits the light to a light receiving element such as a photodiode in each module. The light receiving element converts light into an electric signal and reads the electric signal again by a signal processor to finally know the power of the light. At this time, even though the power is the same, since the magnitude of the electrical signal of the light receiving element is different depending on the wavelength of light, the user should input the information on the wavelength of light to the power meter 1 in advance. The power of light calibrated for each wavelength is displayed on a display device 17, such as an LCD, using mainly units such as dBm, ㎽, ㎼, etc. so that the user can know.

The necessity of such an optical power meter is increasing in order to install and maintain the optical communication system as the optical communication system has been widely spread in recent years. In particular, many ideas have been devised to improve the work efficiency of field users. For example, a device for measuring optical power without cutting an optical fiber is disclosed in US Pat. No. 5,127,724, and the measurement results are stored in the device. Devices have been disclosed in US Pat. Nos. 5,210,703 and 5,521,701, so that the latter can be easily viewed again later. On the other hand, many commercially available power meters make it easy to replace the power meter's connector in the field to match the connector type of optical fiber to which the light is transmitted. However, the devices presented so far do not include the ability to directly insert the stripped and cut fiber. Therefore, even when the optical power is simply checked for the optical fiber connection, the user must attach the connector to the cut end of the optical fiber to measure the optical power, remove the connector, and then connect the optical fiber.

In addition, there is a disadvantage in that the efficiency of the optical power measurement operation is reduced in an environment where the optical power is not easy to visually check because the place where the optical power should be measured is dark or underground, such as an underground communication or a power pole. To compensate for this, some products make alarm sound when the measurement result is over or under the specified power, so that the user can judge the measured value without looking at the screen. Such a case is valid for determining that the measured value is larger or smaller than a predetermined set value, but cannot be used in a situation where the user needs to know the optical power accurately. Therefore, in many cases, the situation does not improve work efficiency.

Accordingly, the technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to provide an optical power meter that enables the user to easily know the average power measured by the optical power meter for a predetermined time without the naked eye.

Another technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an optical power meter which can easily measure the optical power from an optical fiber whose strip is removed and the cutting is completed without a connector.

1 is a front view of an optical power meter according to one example of the prior art;

2 is a front view of an optical power meter according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a view for explaining the connection relationship between the stripping optical fiber and the guide;

4 shows various forms of guides used in the optical power meter of the present invention; And

5 is a schematic block diagram of a configuration of an optical power meter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of Codes on Major Parts of Drawings

110: connector for optical power meter

111, 121: cap

120: guide

125: disk

126: buffer buffer

200: stripping optical fiber

300: light receiving element

400: Power meter display screen

450: Speaker

460: Earphone Jack

470: Earphone

500: Wavelength selection button

510: gain variable amplifier

520: A / D Converter

530: keypad

540: microprocessor

550: memory

560 display device controller

570: voice generator

The optical power meter of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem is: to improve the working speed of the average power over a period of time with a voice and a coating (primary coating) peeling off the cleaving (cleaving) is completed The biggest feature is having a guide that can be accepted directly.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a front view of an optical power meter according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, similar to the optical power meter shown in FIG. 1, a cleaved bare fiber having a primary coating cut along with an optical power meter connector 110 capable of accommodating optical fiber connectors 200 A guide 120 into which can be inserted is installed. When the power meter is not used, caps 111 and 121 are covered with the connector 110 and the guide 120 to prevent foreign substances such as dust from entering. The inner diameter of the guide 120 is determined in consideration of the diameter of the optical fiber used, but is made slightly larger than 125 mu m, which is the outer diameter of a typical stripped optical fiber.

The measurement result of the optical power is displayed numerically on the power meter screen 400. At this time, the unit of the optical power follows the user-specified among the log unit such as dBm and the watt unit such as ㎽, ㎼. When using wattage units, the power meter automatically selects and displays units that are easy to read, among others, W, ㎽, and ㎼. In addition, since the correct light power is determined by knowing the wavelength, a button 500 is provided to select the wavelength so that the wavelength can be selected in advance. In addition, by selecting the voice output button 600, the measurement result may be heard through the speaker 450 as a voice. If there is other noise in the surroundings and it is difficult to hear the voice through the speaker, the earphone 470 may be connected to the earphone jack 460 to hear the voice. When the measurement results are converted to voice, the user can freely set them in Korean, English, or other languages, depending on the region where the power meter is used.

3 is a view for explaining a connection relationship between the stripping optical fiber and the guide. Referring to FIG. 3, a guide 120 for inserting a stripped fiber into its inside and inducing it is connected to a light receiving device 300 such as a photodiode through the capsule 310. The inner diameter of the guide 120 is slightly larger than 125 μm, which is the outer diameter of the general uncovered optical fiber, and a disk 125 having an opening larger than the optical fiber core is installed at the bottom thereof so that the encapsulation portion of the light receiving element 300 is provided. The 310 is not in direct contact with the cut surface of the stripping fiber. In FIG. 3, the bottom shape of the guide 120 is illustrated in a partially enlarged perspective view to clarify the lower shape. If the cut optical fiber is pushed into the guide with excessive force, the cut surface of the optical fiber may be broken due to the impact on the disk 125. This results in more scattered light from the optical fiber, which reduces the accuracy of the optical power measurement, and results in inaccurate measurement of the broken optical fiber piece in the guide. To prevent this, a buffer buffer 126 having a thickness of several millimeters made of a soft material such as polymer or rubber having an opening such as the disk 125 is adhered onto the disk 125. In FIG. 3, the buffer buffer 126 is separated from the disk 125 in order to more clearly display the buffer buffer 126. On the other hand, in the case of a single mode optical fiber, the core diameter is 9 μm, and in the case of a multimode optical fiber, the core diameter is generally about 63 μm at maximum, and the light travels through the core. Even if it is prevented, there is no problem in measuring the optical power accurately.

4 is a view showing various forms of the guide used in the optical power meter of the present invention. The guide 120 may be straight as shown in (a) of FIG. 4, or may be tapered in the upper portion of the guide 120 as shown in FIG. . The user slowly pushes the stripped fiber into the guide 120 and measures the optical power when the optical fiber is no longer inserted.

5 is a schematic block diagram of a configuration of an optical power meter according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, as one of the main features of the optical power meter of the present invention, there is shown a configuration for implementing a function of displaying an accurate power of light on a screen and also expressing it by voice.

The light receiving element 300 is positioned behind the connector 110 and the guide 120 of FIG. 2 to convert the incident light into an electrical signal. The light converted into an electrical signal is amplified by a gain-variable amplifier 510 whose gain is adjustable. The gain of the gain variable amplifier 510 is automatically determined by the microprocessor 540 and may be manually fixed through the keypad 530 attached to the front of the power meter. The amplified electrical signal can be sent to the Analog Output terminal for viewing as the analog signal itself. In order to digitally display the optical power, the gain variable amplifier 510 sends the amplified electric signal to the A / D converter 520 to convert the digital signal into a digital signal. The microprocessor 540 receives this digital signal and calculates an accurate power from a wavelength of pre-input light through a calibration process. At this time, the microprocessor 540 obtains data about the response characteristics of the light receiving element with respect to the wavelength required for calibration from the memory 550. The microprocessor 540 transmits the calculated power of light to the display device 400 such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) through the display device controller 560 and displays the power to the user. In this case, the display unit may use a log scale display method such as dBm, or may use watt units such as ㎽ and ㎼. In addition, the specific power may be stored in the memory 550 in advance, and the relative power thereof may be expressed using dB. In this case, the microprocessor 540 may repeat the measurement as many times as the user designates and send the average value to the display device 400. On the other hand, when the voice function is activated by the voice output button 600 of FIG. 2, the microprocessor 540 also outputs the measurement result as voice. Exporting to voice is performed through the voice generator 570 and the speaker 450 or the earphone 470. The voice generator 570 converts the measurement result into voice in a specific language according to the region where the power meter is used. Do it. Since the description of speech generation in a multinational language is already widely used, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. Meanwhile, the user may store several measurement results in the memory 550 and check them later.

According to the optical power meter of the present invention as described above, the optical power measured by the optical power meter can be easily understood through voice without the user visually confirming, thereby facilitating work in a workspace that cannot be secured. In addition, the output of light from the stripped optical fiber as well as the optical fiber with a connector attached to the end can be easily measured, so the operator does not have to make unnecessary efforts to attach the connector to the optical fiber end, thereby reducing the working time.

As described above, the present invention has been described by the above-described embodiments and the accompanying drawings, but is not limited thereto, and various substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in Esau.

Claims (7)

An optical inductor for guiding light from the optical fiber to the light receiving element; A gain variable amplifier that amplifies the light converted into the electrical signal by the light receiving element in a controllable manner; An A / D converter converting the electric signal amplified by the gain variable amplifier into a digital signal; A microprocessor which automatically determines the gain of the gain variable amplifier and calculates the optical power by receiving the digital signal and calibrating the optical power from a wavelength of pre-input light; A memory device for storing data on a response characteristic of the light receiving element to a wavelength required for calibration in the microprocessor and providing the same to the microprocessor; A display device controller and a display device for providing a visual confirmation of the power of light calculated by the microprocessor; A voice generator and a voice output device for providing a user's auditory confirmation of the power of light calculated by the microprocessor; Optical power meter having a. The method of claim 1, wherein the light inductor is: The optical power meter, characterized in that its inner diameter is larger than the stripping optical fiber, so that the stripping optical fiber can be inserted, and a guide having a disk and a buffer buffer provided at one end thereof with an opening larger than the core of the stripping optical fiber. . The optical power meter according to claim 2, wherein the guide is a straight cylindrical having a constant inner diameter. The optical power meter according to claim 2, wherein the upper end portion of the guide has a tapered shape so as to facilitate insertion of the uncovered optical fiber into the guide. The optical power meter according to claim 2, further comprising an optical inductor having a connector for power meter so as to measure the power of the light emitted from the optical fiber with the connector attached to the end. The optical power meter of claim 5, further comprising a cap covering the guide and the power meter connector to prevent foreign substances from being sucked through the guide and the power meter connector. The optical power meter according to claim 1, further comprising an analog output terminal for observing the electric signal amplified by the gain variable amplifier as the analog signal itself.