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• Microelectronics and Photonics

Fiber components and measurements, transmitters and detectors, fiber amplifiers, multimode fiber links, and wavelength division multiplexing.

One 3-hour lab session per week.

Laboratory Topics¹ Contact hours

Credit or concurrent registration in ECE 465.

None. Laboratory notes are provided to the students.

Course Objectives and Relationship to Program Educational Objectives:

To reinforce fundamentals of lightwave communication systems. Emphasizes theory with elements of design and applications.

Course Outcomes and Relationship to Program Outcomes:

A student completing this course should, at a minimum, be able to:

1. Understand and measure the basic properties of the propagation of light in a guided-wave dielectric optical fiber, including attenuation, coupling, and handling (1,3,6,7)
2. Understand the difference between single mode and multimode fiber and where the two are appropriate in a real-world system (1,3,4,6,7)
3. Understand waveguiding principles, the concept of a mode in fiber, and how this limits the bandwidth in such systems, and to be able to make measurements that directly and indirectly determines these parameters (1,3,6,7)
4. Understand how a pulse (or a bit) propagates in optical fiber and is influenced by dispersion (1,3,6,7)
5. Understand the differences between types of light sources utilized in lightwave systems, including bandwidth, power, modulation, and spectra, and the appropriateness of each in a given system configuration (1,3,4,6,7)
6. Understand the differences between types of receivers utilized in lightwave systems, and the appropriateness of each in a given system configuration, including bandwidth, signal-to-noise, and the statistical nature of light-matter interactions (1,3,4,6,7)
7. Understand how to perform eye-diagram measurements and how to utilize this to understand system jitter, intersymbol interference, and signal-to-noise ratio (1,3,4,6,7)
8. Be able to quickly assemble a fiber optic link, including source, receiver, and propagation medium and understand its main performance limitations (13,4,6,7)
9. Be able to perform standard mask testing utilizing Telcordia standards and to understand power and system margins and budgets (1,3,4,6,7)
10. Be able to perform bit error rate testing and to understand how it is limited by system impairments, and how to optimize system performance (1,3,4,6,7).
11. Understand the basic principles of fiber amplifiers (1,3,4,6,7)