Optical attenuator

If a received signal is too strong a temporary fix is to wrap the cable around a pencil until the desired level of attenuation is achieved.

Preferred attenuators use either doped fibers, or mis-aligned splices, or total power since both of these are reliable and inexpensive.

Such devices can be sensitive to: modal distribution, wavelength, contamination, vibration, temperature, damage due to power bursts, may cause back reflections, may cause signal dispersion etc.

Loopback fiber optic attenuator is designed for testing, engineering and the burn-in stage of boards or other equipment.

Available in SC/UPC, SC/APC, LC/UPC, LC/APC, MTRJ, MPO for singlemode application.900 um fiber cable inside of the black shell for LC and SC type.

Attributes of merit for electrically controlled devices, include speed of response and avoiding degradation of the transmitted signal.

Dynamic range is usually quite restricted, and power feedback may mean that long term stability is a relatively minor issue.

Speed of response is a particularly major issue in dynamically reconfigurable systems, where a delay of one millionth of a second can result in the loss of large amounts of transmitted data.

Typical technologies employed for high speed response include liquid crystal variable attenuator (LCVA), or lithium niobate devices.

Motor control give regular users a distinct productivity advantage, since commonly used test sequences can be run automatically.