What is an visual power meter?
People are normally familiar with electronic multimeters which can portion voltage, current and resistance. An visual power meter looks and works just like a multimeter. It consists of a display unit and a calibrated sensor to portion the light power transmitted in visual fibers.
Absolute Pressure Sensors
Where is it used?
Optical power meters are broadly used in the fiber optic communication industry. It normally comes in two types: desktop type and handheld type.
The desktop type has much higher resolution and is normally used in R&D applications in the lab, fiber optic components and systems manufacturing floors.
The Handheld type has lower resolution and comes in a handy handheld footprint for easy field use. So it is normally used by fiber optic cabling technicians in datacom, telecom and Catv network maintenance.
Working wavelength of the power meter
In the handheld visual power market, the most popular wavelengths are 850nm, 1300nm, 1310nm and 1550nm. 850nm and 1300nm are for multimode applications. 1310nm and 1550nm are for particular mode applications.
It is best to pick an visual power meter which is calibrated for all four wavelengths to get the most out from your money. So you can cover both multimode and particular mode network applications.
Traceable calibration of fiber optic power meters
Power meters are calibrated using a traceable calibration appropriate such as an Nist standard. Nist laboratories furnish measurements and standards for U.S. Industry.
Detector types
The visual detector in a handheld visual power meter is responsible for converting light vigor into electronic volt so the circuit board in the instrument can portion it accordingly. The type of detector determines wavelength range and its dynamic range.
Silicon type detectors can sense 350nm to 1100nm wavelength light. Germanium detectors can sense 750nm to 1800nm. The most popular InGaAs detectors can portion 850nm to 1650 nm.
What is dynamic range?
An visual power meter's dynamic range spec tells you what light power range it can effectively and correctly measure.
When we talk about light power, we normally use the unit dBm. As a reference, 1mW light vigor is defined as 0 dBm. So a 2mW light vigor can be defined in dBm as 10*log10(2mW/1mW) = 3.0 dBm. And 0.5mW is defined in dBm as 10*log10(0.5mW/1mW) = -3.0 dBm.
So a handheld visual power meter with -50~+3dBm dynamic range de facto can portion light vigor from 0.0001mW to 2mW.
Manufactures of visual power meters
The handheld power meter shop is crowded with Agilent, Anritsu, Exfo, Noyes and some other less known brand names. But this type of stock is pretty mature and normally you can safely shop around.
The inexpressive of choosing the Best Handheld optic Power Meter