Monitoring Power Combiners

摘要

The disclosed embodiments show a fused fiber combiner with sensors that are strategically located at various locations, thereby permitting performance monitoring of the fused fiber combiner. Additionally, the disclosed embodiments show various processes for determining causes of any performance degradations.

主权项

1. A thermal monitoring system, comprising:
input fibers for receiving optical signals; a glass taper where the input fibers converge and are fused together; an output fiber optically coupled to the glass taper, the output fiber comprising an output strip edge, the output fiber further comprising a mode stripper, the mode stripper comprising a mode-stripper input and a mode-stripper output; input-splice sensors, each input-splice sensor being operatively coupled to a corresponding input fiber, each input-splice sensor to monitor thermal conditions associated with its corresponding input fiber; a taper thermal sensor operatively coupled to the glass taper, the taper thermal sensor to monitor thermal conditions associated with the glass taper; an output-strip-edge thermal sensor operatively coupled to the output strip edge, the output-strip-edge thermal sensor to monitor thermal conditions associated with the output strip edge; a mode-stripper-input sensor operatively coupled to the mode-stripper input, the mode-stripper-input sensor to monitor thermal conditions associated with the mode-stripper input; and a mode-stripper-output sensor operatively coupled to the mode-stripper output, the mode-stripper-output sensor to monitor thermal conditions associated with the mode-stripper output.