The OFE-001 is a fiber pigtailed compact optical incremental frequency encoder that can measure the instantaneous optical frequency change of tunable lasers or other light sources. This patent pending device provides two signals proportional to the sine and cosine functions of the optical frequency f[V1=V10sin(αf), V2=V20cos(αf)], similar to the function of sine/cosine encoders commonly used for motor control. By deploying the same interpretation algorithms used for motor angular measurement, this
small device is capable of achieving an optical frequency resolution down to MHz scale with a theoretically Infinite frequency range. The device is ideal for applications involving tunable or swept-frequency lasers, where it can act as a k-clock for the fast Fourier transforms (FFT) of received signals, which is necessary to obtain precise distance or depth information in applications such as coherence LIDAR for autonomous vehicles, OFDR based distributed measurement and sensing, and optical coherence
tomography (OCT). The device can also be used as an interrogator for fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based sensor systems to obtain temperature, strain, or acoustic information. Another important application is for precise laser frequency control, such as linearizing the rate of laser frequency tuning or simply stabilizing the laser frequency. ChirpRiteTM – a breakthrough in dynamic optical frequency monitoring and analysis.
Applications
Wavelength swept light source
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)
Coherent LIDAR
FBG sensor interrogation
Test & Measurement
OFDR based distributed test & sensing
Coherent Detection Systems
Key Features
• Compact size
• Low insertion loss
• High extinction ratio
• Low back reflection