Photonix Industries

Timothy M Chappel

An apparatus and a method are provided for measuring component attentuation such as the attenuation in a splice of two (2) optical fibers. Four (4) fixed positions are provided. The second position is closer to the splice than the first position on one side of the splice and the third position is closer to the splice than the fourth position on the other side of the splice. Light emitters such as edge light emitting diodes are disposed at the first and fourth positions and light detectors such as ingass detectors are disposed at the second and third positions. The fibers may be looped at the four (4) positions to facilitate the passage of light into and out of the fibers. Clamps may be provided at each of the four (4) positions to provide for selective activation of individual ones of the detectors. In this way, light from each of the light emitters may be selectively passed at individual times to each of the detectors to provide indications at the detectors. A data processor may analyze the indications at the detectors to determine the effectiveness of the splice. In the analysis, the processor may provide the square root of the ratio between the product of two (2) of the indications and the product of the other two (2) indications to determine the attenuation in the splice.

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Simi Valley, CA, United States of America

Timothy M Chappel