This part of IEC 61290 applies to all commercially available optical amplifiers (OAs) and
optically amplified subsystems. It applies to OAs using optically pumped fibres (OFAs based
on either rare-earth doped fibres or on the Raman effect), semiconductor optical amplifiers
(SOAs) and waveguides (POWA).
The object of this standard is to establish uniform requirements for accurate and reliable
measurements, by means of the interpolated source subtraction method using an optical
spectrum analyzer. The following OA parameters, as defined in Clause 3 of IEC 61291-1, are
determined:
• channel gain, and
• channel signal-spontaneous noise figure.
This method is called interpolated source subtraction (ISS) because the amplified
spontaneous emission (ASE) at each channel is obtained by interpolating from measurements
at a small wavelength offset around each channel. To minimize the effect of source
spontaneous emission, the effect of source noise is subtracted from the measured noise.
The accuracy of the ISS technique degrades at high input power level due to the spontaneous
emission from the laser source(s). Annex A provides guidance on the limits of this technique
for high input power.
An additional source of inaccuracy is due to interpolation error. Annex A provides guidance on
the magnitude of interpolation error for a typical amplifier ASE versus wavelength
characteristic.
NOTE 1 All numerical values followed by (‡) are suggested values for which the measurement is assured. Other
values may be acceptable but should be verified.
NOTE 2 General aspects of noise figure test methods are reported in IEC 61290-3.
IEC 61290-10-4:2007 history
2007IEC 61290-10-4:2007 Optical amplifiers - Test methods - Part 10-4: Multichannel parameters - Interpolated source subtraction method using an optical spectrum analyser