4
APPLICATION SUPPORT
Optical Power Budget
and Link Penalties
The worst-case Optical Power
Budget (OPB) in dB for a fiber-
optic link is determined by the
difference between the minimum
transmitter output optical power
(dBm avg.) and the lowest receiver
sensitivity (dBm avg.). This OPB
provides the necessary optical
signal range to establish a working
fiber-optic link. The OPB is
allocated for the fiber-optic cable
length and the corresponding link
penalties. For proper link
performance, all penalties that
affect the link performance must
be accounted for within the link
optical power budget.
Data Line
Interconnections
Hewlett-Packard’s HFBR/HFCT-
53D3 fiber-optic transceiver is
designed to directly couple to
+5 V PECL signals. The
transmitter inputs are internally
dc-coupled to the laser driver
circuit from the transmitter input
pins (pins 7, 8). There is no
internal, capacitively-coupled 50
Ohm termination resistance
within the transmitter input
section. The transmitter driver
circuit for the laser light source is
a dc-coupled circuit. This circuit
regulates the output optical
power. The regulated light output
will maintain a constant output
optical power provided the data
pattern is reasonably balanced in
duty factor. If the data duty factor
has long, continuous state times
(low or high data duty factor),
then the output optical power will
gradually change its average
output optical power level to its
preset value.
As for the receiver section, it is
internally ac-coupled between the
preamplifier and the post-
amplifier stages. The actual Data
and Data-bar outputs of the post-
amplifier are dc-coupled to their
respective output pins (pins 2, 3).
Signal Detect is a single-ended,
+5 V PECL output signal that is
dc-coupled to pin 4 of the module.
Signal Detect should not be ac-
coupled externally to the
follow-on circuits because of its
infrequent state changes.
Caution should be taken to account
for the proper interconnection
between the supporting Physical
Layer integrated circuits and this
HFBR/HFCT-53D3 transceiver.
Figure 3 illustrates a
recommended interface circuit
for interconnecting to a +5 V dc
PECL fiber-optic transceiver.
Some fiber-optic transceiver
suppliers’ modules include
internal capacitors, with or
without 50 Ohm termination, to
couple their Data and Data-bar
lines to the I/O pins of their
module. When designing to use
these type of transceivers along
with Hewlett-Packard
transceivers, it is important that
the interface circuit can
accommodate either internal or
external capacitive coupling with
50 Ohm termination components
for proper operation of both
transceiver designs. The internal
dc-coupled design of the
HFBR/HFCT-53D3 I/O
connections was done to provide
the designer with the most
flexibility for interfacing to
various types of circuits.
Eye Safety Circuit
For an optical transmitter device
to be eye-safe in the event of a
single fault failure, the transmitter
must either maintain normal, eye-
safe operation or be disabled.
In the HFBR-53D3 there are three
key elements to the laser driver
safety circuitry: a monitor diode,
a window detector circuit and
direct control of the laser bias.
The window detection circuit
monitors the average optical
power using the monitor diode. If
a fault occurs such that the
transmitter dc regulation circuit
cannot maintain the preset bias
conditions for the laser emitter
within ±20%, the transmitter will
automatically be disabled. Once
this has occurred, only an
electrical power reset will allow
an attempted turn-on of the
transmitter.
The HFCT-53D3 utilizes an
integral fiber stub along with a
current limiting circuit to
guarantee eye-safety. It is
intrinsically eye safe and does not
require shut down circuitry.
Signal Detect
The Signal Detect circuit provides
a deasserted output signal that
implies the link is open or the
transmitter is OFF. The Signal
Detect threshold is set to
transition from a high to low state
between the minimum receiver
input optional power and -30 dBm
avg. input optical power
indicating a definite optical fault
(e.g. unplugged connector for the
receiver or transmitter, broken
fiber, or failed far-end transmitter
or data source). A Signal Detect
indicating a working link is
functional when receiving
encoded 8B/l0B characters. The
Signal Detect does not detect
receiver data error or error-rate.
Data errors are determined by
Signal processing following the
transceiver.