Visual fault detection for optical measurements

• US 20050117147A1
• Filed: 01/17/2002
• Published: 06/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Beller, Josef, Peerlings, Joachim
• Granted Patent: US 7,068,358 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/73.100
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 11/31 with a light emitter and a light receiver being disposed at the same side of a fibre or waveguide end-face, e.g. reflectometers
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 11/3109 Reflectometers detecting the back-scattered light in the time-domain, e.g. OTDR

Abstract

An optical measuring device for providing a measurement of an optical device under test -DUT- comprises a measuring unit for providing an optical stimulus signal for the DUT and/or receiving a response signal of the DUT, and a visual fault localization unit for visually localizing faults within the DUT or a connection thereto. The measuring unit and the visual fault localization unit are preferably coupled to a signal direction unit, and the signal direction unit is further coupled to a connector representing an interface of the optical measuring device for coupling the DUT thereto.

Claims

1. An optical measuring device for providing a measurement of an optical device under test -DUT- comprising:

a measuring unit adapted for providing an optical stimulus signal for the DUT and/or receiving a response signal of the DUT, and

a visual fault localization unit adapted for visually localizing faults within the DUT or a connection thereto.

2. The optical measuring device of claim 1, wherein the measuring unit and the visual fault localization unit are coupled to a signal direction unit, and the signal direction unit is further coupled to a connector representing an interface of the optical measuring device for coupling the DUT thereto.

3. The optical measuring device of claim 2, wherein the signal direction unit is adapted to provide a signal direction for optical signals received by the measuring device at the connector.

4. The optical measuring device of claim 2, wherein the signal direction unit is adapted to provide a signal direction for optical signals provided by the measuring unit and/or the visual fault localization unit through the connector towards the DUT and/or any optical network connected therebetween.

5. The optical measuring device of claim 2, wherein the signal direction unit comprises at least one of a switch or a coupling unit.

6. The optical measuring device of claim 2, wherein the signal direction unit is provided to allow both the visual fault localization unit and the measuring unit to couple optical signals to the connector, and to direct substantially all optical signals received by the measuring device at the connector to the measuring unit.

7. The optical measuring device of claim 1, wherein the visual fault localization unit comprises a visual light source, preferably a red light source.

8. The optical measuring device of claim 1, wherein the response signal is at least one of a signal emitted from the DUT or a signal of the DUT in response to an applied stimulus signal.

9. The optical measuring device of claim 1, wherein the DUT comprises at least one of a discrete optical component, a fiber, or a fiber network with or without discrete optical components.

10. The optical measuring device of claim 1 being one of an time domain reflectometer, preferably an optical time domain reflectometer, a WDM-tester, a chromatic dispersion tester, a polarization mote dispersion (PMD) tester, a loss tester, a multi-path interference tester.