Agilent Technologies 8163A User Manual page 191

How to Use a Variable Optical Attenuator module
Calibration Procedure
Agilent 8163A/B, 8164A/B, and 8166A/B User's Guide, Fourth Edition
To calibrate a test setup that utilizes an 81560A/61A or
81570A/71A/73A Attenuator module, first measure the power applied
by your test set up to the DUT input, then store this value as the
Attenuator's P
After calibration, you edit the Attenuator's P
power applied to the DUT.
1 Disconnect the DUT input in your test setup and connect it to your
reference powermeter.
– Set the λ parameter for the reference powermeter to the source
wavelength or, for a multi-wavelength DWDM signal, the effective
wavelength λ
– Set an appropriate measurement <Averaging Time>.
2 Display the details screen for the Attenuator module.
Make sure the λ parameter set for the Attenuator module matches
the source wavelength or, for a multi-wavelength DWDM signal,
λ
.
effective
3 If the reference powermeter is hosted by the same mainframe as the
Attenuator module:
– Select the P
– Press the [PM-> ref ] softkey,
– Select the channel used to host your reference powermeter,
– Press [OK].
The power value measured by your reference powermeter is copied
to the Attenuator and stored as P
4 If the reference powermeter is hosted by another mainframe:
– Manually enter the value of P
value measured by your reference powermeter.
5 Disconnect the input to the reference powermeter, then connect it
to the DUT input.
6 Edit the P
SET
The attenuation, α , displayed is updated to reflect the new P
value.
N O T E Your calibration is valid until there is some change to the power
applied to the input of the Attenuator module. For example, if you
change the optical path to the Attenuator module, you must
recalibrate.
Setting Attenuation and/or Power Levels
parameter.
ref
.
effective
field,
ref
ref
ref
parameter to set the power applied to the DUT.
parameter to set the
SET
.
such that P equals the power
SET
SET
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