How Much Do You Know About PLC Splitter?

Fibermart
Tuesday 02 September, 2014
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What is PLC Splitter?

PLC Splitter, short for Planar Lightwave Circuit Splitter, is developed based on unique silica glass waveguide process with reliable precision aligned fiber pigtail in a miniature package, providing a low cost light distribution solution with small form factor and high reliability.

Why Do We Need PLC Splitters?

Splitter is an indispensable component of Passive Optical Network (PON) systems. In the PON system, PLC splitter is used to distribute or combine optical signals. As widely used in FTTx (Fiber to the x, which is defined as a collective term for various optical fiber delivery topologies that are categorized according to where the fiber terminates), the splitter technology is valued with its wider operating wavelength (PLC splitter can work on 1260-1650nm wavelength, while FBT can usually work on three different operating wavelengths). PLC splitter, with its high quality perfomance, such as the low insertion loss, low Polarization Dependent Loss (PDL), meeting the transmission requirements of different wavelength, spectral uniformity, the average signal assigned to the user, compact structure, small volume, low cost of more points etc., is widely used and expected as an important component in many network solutions. The position of PLC Splitter in the network see Figure 1.

Figure 1. The position of PLC Splitter in the network

How Does a PLC Splitter Work?

PLC Splitter is installed in every optical network between the PON Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and the Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) that the OLT serves. The simple optical splitter is used in networks to implement BPON, GPON, EPON, 10G EPON, and 10G GPON technology. But there is something special in a WDM PON network, it will use an Arrayed Wave Guide (AWG) instead of the optical splitter. PLC splitter is based on planar Light wave circuit technology and precision aligning process so that it can divide a single/dual optical input(s) into multiple optical outputs uniformly and is denoted 1xN or 2xN. We can see the Figure 2. below, which shows the PLC splitter’s working principle.

PLC splitter's working principle

Figure 2. PLC splitter’s working principle

Types of PLC Splitters

Depending on subscriber conditions or cable length, types of PLC splitter available include 1xN and 2xN, such as 1×4, 1×8, 1×16, 1×32, etc. may be used. In addition, in order to follow clients’ different inquiry, different package are produced by the manufacturers.

Types of Fiber-Mart’s PLC Splitters

Fiber-Mart’s PLC splitters including 1XN to 64 and 2XN to 64 types, they are with a wide range of working wavelength from 1260nm to 1620nm. Package types as below:

Bare fiber splitter-the PLC splitter without connectors (Figure 3.)

Figure 3. Bare fiber splitter

Blockless fiber splitter-PLC Splitter with LC/SC/FC/ST connectors – direct 900μm output (Figure 4.)

Figure 4. Blockless fiber splitter

Fanout Splitters-PLC Splitter with LC/SC/FC/ST connectors and Fan-out Kit (Figure 5.)

Figure 5. Fanout Splitters

ABS & LGX Splitters-PLC Splitter module with 0.9/2/3mm cable input and output(Figure 6.)

Figure 6. ABS and LGX Splitter

Rack Chassis Splitter- PLC Splitter mounted in patch panel(Figure 7)

Figure 7. Rack Chassis Splitter

Fiber-Mart’s newly PLC Splitter products- PLC Splitter in Mini Plug-in type
Fiber-Mart recently launched the newest product of the PLC splitter producing line, which is designde in Mini plug-in Type(Figure 8.). This type of PLC splitter is specialized for plug and play splitter application, features high reliability, reduce installation time,small size, wide operating wavelength range and good channel-to-channel uniformity and provide a cost effective and space saving product suitable to the ever changing networking requirements, and now is widely used in PON networks to realize optical signal power splitting.
plc splitter in mini plug-in type