LC/SC/FC/ST Fixed Fiber Optic Attenuator, Single Mode, Male-Female, 1~25dB Optional

LC/SC/FC/ST fiber optic attenuator, also called LC/SC/FC/ST optical attenuator, is a passive device used to reduce the power level of an optical signal. Owing to that too much light can make a fiber optic receiver saturated, the light power must be reduced by using fiber optic attenuator to achieve the best fiber optic system performance. Generally, multimode systems do not need attenuators as the multimode sources, even VCSELs, rarely have enough power output to saturate receivers. Instead, single-mode systems, especially the long-haul DWDM network links, often need to use fiber optic attenuators to adjust the optical power during the transmission.

LC/SC/FC/ST fiber optic attenuator takes a number of different forms. They have different classification perspectives such as the connector type, cable type, etc. Generally, they are widely accepted to be grouped as fixed optical attenuators (FOA) and optical variable attenuators (VOA). Fixed attenuator, as the name of which has indicated clearly, is designed to have an unchanging level of attenuation in optical fiber, expressed in dB, typically between 1dB and 30dB, such as 1dB, 5dB, 10dB, etc.

Fixed optical attenuators may use a variety of principles for their functioning. Preferred optical attenuators often use either doped fibers, or misaligned splices, or total power while non-preferred attenuators often use gap loss or reflective principles.
LC/SC/FC/ST fiber optic attenuator generally used in single-mode long-haul applications to prevent optical overload at the receiver. Optical attenuator is widely used in CWDM&DWDM, CATV systems, data center networks, test equipment and other high power applications.

As optical passive devices, the LC/SC/FC/ST attenuators are mainly used in fiber optic to debug optical power performance & optical instrument calibration correction & fiber signal attenuation to ensure the optical power in a stable and desired level in the link without any changes on its original transmission wave.