Sains Malaysiana 43(11)(2014): 1743–1750

Fabrikasi dan Pencirian Pencerai 3×3 Berasaskan Gentian Optik Polimer (POF) dengan Teknik Pelakuran Berkos Rendah

(Fabrication and Characterization of Splitter 3×3 based on Polimer Optical Fiber (POF) with Low Cost Fusion Technique)

MOHAMMAD SYUHAIMI AB-RAHMAN¹*, LATIFAH SARAH SUPIAN^1,2, HADI GUNA¹,

NIK NUR SYAHIRAH MOHAMMAD³, I-SHYAN HWANG³ & AFIQ HIPNI³

¹Department of Electrical, Electronics & System Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

²Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, Kem Sungai Besi, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

³Department of Civil & Structural Engineering Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

Received: 26 December 2012/Accepted: 9 April 2014

ABSTRAK

Gentian optik polimer (POF) mempunyai banyak kelebihan dan banyak digunakan untuk komunikasi terutamanya dalam industri automotif. Komunikasi ini memerlukan maklumat yang banyak dihantar pada satu masa dengan kos yang rendah. Untuk itu pencerai 3×3 POF yang berkonsepkan pemultipleks bahagi jarak gelombang (WDM) yang berkos rendah dan berteknologi hijau difabrikasikan. Pencerai POF ini difabrikasikan dengan menggunakan alat yang murah dan mudah didapati, iaitu tiub besi dan lilin. Teknik fabrikasi yang digunakan adalah dengan memanaskan tiga lembar POF sehingga bahagian tengahnya mencair dan melakur sehingga mengecil dan memanjang berdiameter 1 mm. Pencerai 3x3 POF yang berjaya difabrikasi dicirikan dengan mengukur kehilangan POF sebelum dan selepas hujungnya diratakan dan digilap dengan dua jenis kertas pasir yang berlainan darjah kekasaran. Ini untuk melihat kesan gilapan pada kehilangan isyarat optik. Kehilangan pencerai POF juga diukur pada suhu yang berbeza bagi melihat kesannya pada prestasi pencerai POF. Berdasarkan keputusan yang diperoleh, dapat dilihat bahawa kebersihan dan kerataan hujung POF memberi kesan kepada kehilangan dengan penurunan antara 0.3 hingga 5.0 dB. Suhu juga memberi kesan kepada kehilangan isyarat POF, walaupun tidak begitu ketara, dengan purata peningkatan kehilangan sebanyak 0.3 dB. Walaupun secara keseluruhannya nilai kehilangan dalam pencerai POF yang difabrikasi ini masih tinggi, prestasi ini dapat diperbaiki dengan penambahbaikan pada teknik pelakuran dan penggunaan alat yang lebih berkualiti. Teknik pemfabrikasi berkos rendah ini dipercayai boleh menghasilkan pencerai POF yang murah secara komersil, tetapi dengan kajian yang lebih mendalam pada teknik pelakuran, punca kehilangan dan cara meminimumkan kehilangan boleh diperolehi dan meningkatkan isyarat optik keluaran.

Kata kunci: Buatan tangan; mesra alam; mesra pengguna; pencerai POF 3×3; teknik pelakuran

ABSTRACT

Polymer optical fiber (POF) has many advantages making it the choice of today’s communication, especially in automotive industry. This communication requires low cost ways for much information to be sent simultaneously. Because of this, using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) concept, a low cost and green 3×3 POF splitter is fabricated. It is fabricated using cheap and easy-to-find tools such as metal tube and candle. The fabrication is being done by taking three strands of POF and heating the middle parts so that it will melted and fused together until it elongated and shrink to a diameter of 1 mm. Successfully fabricated POF splitter are characterized by measuring the output losses, before and after the POF’s end is being smoothed and polished using two sand papers of different degree of coarseness. This is to observe the effect of polishing on optical signal losses. POF splitter’s losses are also measured on different temperature to observe the effect of temperature on the splitter’s performance. Based on the result, it is obvious that cleanliness and a flat POF’s end surface influenced the losses with a reduction between 0.3 and 5.0 dB. Temperature, even though subtle, does also affect the signal losses with increased losses averaging around 0.3 dB. Overall, the losses in the fabricated POF splitter are still high, but show promising improvement with amelioration of fusion technique and the use of tools with higher quality. This low cost fabrication technique is believed to commercially produce cheap POF splitter, but with more in-depth research on the fusion technique, the source of losses and ways to minimize the losses can be obtained and improve the output optic signals.

Keywords: Environment friendly; fusion technique; hand-made; user friendly; 3×3 POF splitter

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*Corresponding author; email: syuhaimi@ukm.edu.my