Improving Data Transmission in Fiber Optics by Detecting Scratches on the Fiber End Face

Abstract

Optical fiber sustains scratches, pits and other types of defects on the end face during the polishing process. Hence, fiber end face inspection is a significant process for fiber manufactures when analysing the performance of a fiber. In order to identify the defects present on the fiber end face, a novel model is presented in this paper. Our model combined filtering methods to enhance the contrast of the images so scratches can be successfully detected. However, because the photos have been taken with different gains and exposures, they can not be processed with standard image processing techniques. We developed a method to analyse the defects intensity that could be located under different gains and exposures. We established that the images taken with the high gains and exposures performed well for optical fiber defect recognition.

An Optical Tool to Optimize the Output of a Photonic Integrated Chip Architecture

“…Finally, image processing techniques are widely used for fiber optics, as inspection methods to detect defects like in [17] where the authors developed a system robust to different gains and exposures, or for adjusting the correct alignments like in [18]. Few works also exist which imply optical inspection of camera images for extracting the performances of a PIC, such as in [19], where the Mashanovich et al used a long wave infrared camera to evaluate the performance of Mid-Infrared Germanium-based photonic devices, computing the propagation losses per unit length of the waveguides.…”