Small Planet Photonics

Fast Optical Power Meters

Automated Data Collection

Conventional power meters are designed for bench-top (or hand-held) operation and connectivity to a computer for automated data collection is an afterthought. In such power meters communication is done through a standard digital interface such as GPIB, USB or RS-232. This causes problems with data throughput, timing delay (latency) and timing jitter in high-speed applications such as fiber alignment. PM-Series Fast Optical Power Meters solve this problem by capitalizing on the precise timing capabilities of computer data acquisition (DAQ) cards like the E-Series from National Instruments. Instead of digital data, the power meters output two calibrated analogue voltages (value and range) that are referred to collectively as Parallel Analog™ Interface. This approach completely eliminates the data throughput, latency and timing jitter issues of the conventional power meters.