The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 03, 1991
Filed:
Apr. 12, 1990
Richard Buerli, Ventura, CA (US);
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, MN (US);
Abstract
An optical fault finder which optimizes the pulse width of the test signal which is transmitted through an optical fiber. The fault finder is an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) having a variable pulse width light source and associated timer. When a first test signal is launched down the optical fiber, a microprocessor within the OTDR detects any discrete losses and records the signal level at these faults. The OTDR then launches subsequent test signals whose pulse widths have been optimized according to the signal level at each fault. Also, a novel processing technique utilizes a matched filter to provide greater sensitivity to loss detection and location of the corresponding faults.