HP 83487A, User Manual, Page: 11 / 98

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Getting Started
The HP 83487A Optical/Electrical Plug-In Module
The HP 83487A Optical/Electrical Plug-In
Module
The HP 83487A optical/electrical plug-in module incorporates two measure-
ment channels, one optical and one electrical. The electrical channel has two
selectable bandwidth settings. In the lower bandwidth mode of 12.4 GHz,
oscilloscope noise performance is excellent, while the 20 GHz mode allows
greater fidelity for high speed signals. The calibrated, integrated optical chan-
nel has over 2.85 GHz bandwidth and allows easy, precise measurements of
single-mode or multimode optical signals.
The integrated optical channel reduces electrical mismatch loss variation by
eliminating signal distorting cables and connectors associated with the use of
external receivers in order to accurately characterize optical waveforms. The
optical channel is calibrated to provide both accurate display of the received
optical waveform in optical power units and measurement of the signal’s aver-
age power. In addition, the User Cal feature provides for consistent accuracy
at any wavelength between 750 nm and 860 nm using a source and power
meter.
The HP 83487A optical/electrical plug-in module also is a calibrated reference
receiver that is measured to conform to specifications for Fibre Channel (FC)
1063 and Gigabit Ethernet for transmitter compliance testing. By pressing a
front-panel key or issuing an HP-IB command, a filter is inserted or removed
from the measurement channel by a very repeatable HP microwave switch.
The switch removes the potential variability and the time wasted by manually
inserting and removing the filter, and maximizes measurement repeatability.
The electrical measurement channel may be used to perform measurements
on tributary electrical signals, to evaluate receiver performance in transceiver
testing, for measurements with HP’s wide range of external optical receivers,
or for general purpose measurements.