IEC 61290-1-3:2021

IEC 61290-1-3 ®
Edition 4.0 2021-03
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
Optical amplifiers – Test methods –
Part 1-3: Power and gain parameters – Optical power meter method

Amplificateurs optiques – Méthodes d'essai –
Partie 1-3: Paramètres de puissance et de gain – Méthode par appareil de
mesure de la puissance optique

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IEC 61290-1-3 ®
Edition 4.0 2021-03
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
Optical amplifiers – Test methods –

Part 1-3: Power and gain parameters – Optical power meter method

Amplificateurs optiques – Méthodes d'essai –

Partie 1-3: Paramètres de puissance et de gain – Méthode par appareil de

mesure de la puissance optique

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 33.180.30 ISBN 978-2-8322-9475-8

– 2 – IEC 61290-1-3:2021 © IEC 2021
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms . 5
3.1 Terms and definitions . 5
3.2 Abbreviated terms . 6
4 Apparatus . 7
5 Test sample . 9
6 Procedure . 9
7 Calculation . 12
8 Test results . 13
Annex A (informative)  Optimization of optical bandpass filter spectral width . 15
Bibliography . 16

Figure 1 – Typical arrangement of optical power meter test apparatus for measurement . 7

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS – TEST METHODS –

Part 1-3: Power and gain parameters – Optical power meter method

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
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8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
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rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
IEC 61290-1-3 has been prepared by subcommittee 86C: Fibre optic systems and active
devices, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics. It is an International Standard.
This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition published in 2015. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:
a) harmonization with IEC 61290-1-1;
b) use of the term "measurement uncertainty" instead of "measurement accuracy".

– 4 – IEC 61290-1-3:2021 © IEC 2021
The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
86C/1671/CDV 86C/1698/RVC
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/standardsdev/publications.
A list of all parts in the IEC 61290 series, published under the general title Optical amplifiers –

Test methods, can be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to
the specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS – TEST METHODS –

Part 1-3: Power and gain parameters – Optical power meter method

1 Scope
This part of IEC 61290 applies to all commercially available optical amplifiers (OA) and optically
amplified subsystems. It applies to OA using optically pumped fibres (OFA based on either rare-
earth doped fibres or on the Raman effect), semiconductors (SOA), and waveguides (POWA).
NOTE 1 The applicability of the test methods described in this document to distributed Raman amplifiers is for
further study.
The object of this document is to establish uniform requirements for accurate and reliable
measurements, by means of the optical power meter test method, of the following OA
parameters, as defined in IEC 61291-1:
a) nominal output signal power;
b) gain;
c) polarization-dependent gain;
d) maximum output signal power;
e) maximum total output power.
NOTE 2 All numerical values followed by (‡) are suggested values for which the measurement is assured. Other
values can be acceptable upon verification.
This document applies to single-channel amplifiers. For multichannel amplifiers,
IEC 61290-10 (all parts) applies.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies.
For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any
amendments) applies.
IEC 60793-2-50, Optical fibres – Part 2-50: Product specifications – Sectional specification for
class B single-mode fibres
IEC 61291-1, Optical amplifiers – Pa
...