Three Leaps in Optical Fiber Communication Technology

Three Leaps in Optical Fiber Communication Technology

1) The 1960s. In 1962, the first semiconductor laser was born, and then the semiconductor photodetector was successfully researched. In particular, in 1966, British Chinese scientist Kao Kun and Hockham proposed that the communication optical fiber with attenuation of 20dB/km could be made of glass. In 1970, Corning Corporation of the United States first produced 20dB/km optical fiber, which indicates that the actual research conditions of optical fiber communication system have been met.

2) The 1970s. In 1970, the dual heterostructure of LD was invented, which made the life of light source and photodetector reach the practical level of 100000 hours. In 1979, new low loss windows of 1310nm and 1550nm for optical fibers were discovered, followed by the advent of single-mode optical fibers. The attenuation coefficient of optical fiber decreases to 0.5dB/km. This makes the optical fiber communication step into the practical stage. Since the early 1980s, optical fiber communication has marched into the market.

3) The early 1990s. The successful development of EDFA in 1989 is the beginning of a new round of breakthrough in optical fiber communication. The application of EDFA not only solves the problem of optical fiber

The compensation of transmission attenuation has created conditions for the application of a number of optical network devices. The digital transmission rate of optical fiber communication is rapidly improved, which promotes wavelength division multiplexing

Practical application of technology