A semiconductor device may include a semiconductor wafer, and a reference circuit carried by the semiconductor wafer. The reference circuit may include optical DUTs, a first set of photodetectors coupled to outputs of the optical DUTs, an optical splitter coupled to inputs of the optical DUTs, and a second set of photodetectors coupled to the optical splitter. The optical splitter is to be coupled to an optical source and configured to transmit a reference optical signal to the first set of photodetectors via the optical DUTs and the second set of photodetectors.

A photonic resonator analyzer characterizes a photonic resonator and incudes a light source that provides a probe light; a photonic resonator that receives the probe light and produces product light; an optical detector that receives the product light and produces a product signal; a mode analyzer that receives the product signal and produces a resonator spectrum; and a spectral analyzer that receives the resonator spectrum, performs regression by fitting a non-parametric model to the resonator spectrum, and produces a thermal response function of the photonic resonator from fitting the non-parametric model to the resonator spectrum to characterize the photonic resonator.

There is provided a method for measuring an optical power attenuation value of a multimode DUT. The method generally has, using an optical source, propagating test light along a multimode device link having a first multimode device, the multimode DUT and a second multimode device serially connected to one another; said propagating including inducing a preferential attenuation of high-order optical fiber modes of the test light along the first multimode device and along the second multimode device; using an optical power detector, detecting an optical signal resulting from the propagation of the test light along the multimode device link and transmitting an output signal based on the detected optical signal; and using a processor, determining the optical power attenuation value of the multimode DUT based on the output signal.

An optical testing circuit on a wafer includes an optical input configured to receive an optical test signal and photodetectors configured to generate corresponding electrical signals in response to optical processing of the optical test signal through the optical testing circuit. The electrical signals are simultaneously sensed by a probe circuit and then processed. In one process, test data from the electrical signals is simultaneously generated at each step of a sweep in wavelength of the optical test signal and output in response to a step change. In another process, the electrical signals are sequentially selected and the sweep in wavelength of the optical test signal is performed for each selected electrical signal to generate the test data.

A light physical constant measurement method includes: virtually dividing an optical transmission medium along a propagation direction to set a plurality of first segments; and estimating light physical constants of the plurality of first segments based on the result of a first propagation simulation that uses a model in which an input optical signal of each of the plurality of intensities propagates sequentially through the plurality of first segments, and in the estimating of light physical constants of the plurality of first segments, the light physical constants of the plurality of first segments are searched for using an evaluation function of evaluating a difference between a measured power spectrum of an output optical signal and a power spectrum of the output optical signal obtained as a result of the first propagation simulation, to estimate the light physical constants of the plurality of first segments.

A line monitoring system may include a laser source to launch a probe signal over a first bandwidth, a polarization maintaining tap to receive and split the probe signal, into a first portion and a second portion, a polarization rotator to receive the first portion and send the first portion to a transmission system, a return tap to receive the second portion and to receive a return signal from the transmission system, wherein the return signal being derived from the first portion, a photodetector coupled to receive an interference signal from the return tap, wherein the interference signal is generated by a mixing the return signal and the second portion, where the photodetector is arranged to output a power signal based upon the interference signal, and a power measurement system to measure the power signal at a given measurement frequency over a second bandwidth, comparable to the first bandwidth.

The computer readable memory has recorded thereon instruction code for execution by a computing device for use with an optical power loss measurement (OPLM) system. The instruction code generally comprises: code for displaying a first set of instructions including measuring a first power value of test light outputted from a first reference optical waveguide; code for displaying a second set of instructions including measuring a second power value of test light outputted from a reference waveguide link including the first reference optical waveguide connected in series to a second reference optical waveguide; code for displaying a third set of instructions including measuring a reference power value of the OPLM system resulting from the propagation of light from via the reference waveguide link; and code for determining a corrected reference power value based on the reference power value and on the first and second power values.

The output profile of light from a multimode optical fiber is determined using a geometrical optics approach where the rays launched into the fiber conform to LP-modes of the fiber. This output profile can then be employed as an input to a second fiber to calculate the transmission losses of a coupler that introduces various coupling inaccuracies, such as lateral offset, axial offset, and angular offset.

An inspection device for an optical ferrule includes one or more reflectors. Each reflector has a mating surface and a mirror disposed at an oblique angle with respect to the mating surface. Each reflector is configured to mate with the optical ferrule when the optical ferrule is disposed within a housing of an optical connector. When the mating surface of the reflector is in mated contact with the mating surface of the optical ferrule, the mirror is positioned to provide a reflected view of at least a portion of a mating surface of the optical ferrule.

Optical fabrication monitor structures can be included in a design fabricated on a wafer from a mask or fabrication reticle. A first set of components can be formed in an initial fabrication cycle, where the first set includes functional components and monitor structures. A second set of components can be formed by subsequent fabrication processes that can potentially cause errors or damage to the first set of components. The monitor structures can be implemented during fabrication (e.g., in a cleanroom) to detect fabrication errors without pulling or scrapping the wafer.