These products are needed when an optical splitter or combiner is required in a central office environment. They are used in CATV headends and telephone company central offices.

Clearfield® provides Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) and Fused Biconic Taper (FBT) Splitters in a variety of optical component packages for the network and application need allowing carriers the ability to provide uniform fully passive signal splitting to multiple premises.

Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC or Planar)
A light circuit on an ‘optical chip’ is mounted on a carrier and fibers, usually in ribbon form, are bonded to the edges of the chip. The assembly is encapsulated in a protective enclosure. PLC devices support direct split counts up to 64. In planar fabrication technology, devices are made using ion-exchange or photo-lithography techniques that replicate solid-state circuit methods. Ultimately, the per-unit cost for the expected high volumes will become advantageous for planar technology, especially for higher port devices. A difficult manufacturing problem involves a low-loss method for attaching the optical fibers to the chip and then passing the market’s qualification and reliability requirements.