IEC 61315:2019

Calibration of fibre-optic power meters

IEC 61315:2019 is applicable to instruments measuring radiant power emitted from sources that are typical for the fibre-optic communications industry. These sources include laser diodes, light emitting diodes (LEDs) and fibre-type sources. Both divergent and collimated radiations are covered. This document defines the calibration of power meters to be performed by calibration laboratories or by power meter manufacturers. This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition published in 2005. It constitutes a technical revision. This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous edition:
a) update of terms and definitions;
b) update of 5.1, including Table 1 (new type of source);
c) update of Annex A;
d) addition of Annex B on dB conversion.
Keywords: Fibre-optic power meters

Etalonnage de wattmètres pour dispositifs à fibres optiques

L'IEC 61315:2019 s'applique aux appareils qui mesurent la puissance rayonnante émise par des sources typiques pour l'industrie des communications par fibres optiques. Ces sources comprennent les diodes laser, les diodes émettant de la lumière (LED) et les sources fibrées. Le rayonnement divergent ainsi que le rayonnement collimaté sont couverts par le présent document. Ce dernier définit l'étalonnage des wattmètres à effectuer par des laboratoires d'étalonnage ou par des fabricants de wattmètres. Cette troisième édition annule et remplace la deuxième édition parue en 2005. Cette édition constitue une révision technique. Cette édition inclut les modifications techniques majeures suivantes par rapport à l'édition précédente:
a) mise à jour des termes et définitions;
b) mise à jour du 5.1, y compris le Tableau 1 (nouveau type de source);
c) mise à jour de l'Annexe A;
d) ajout d'une Annexe B sur la conversion en dB.
Mots-clés : wattmètres pour dispositifs à fibres optiques

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 28-Mar-2019
• ICS: 01 - GENERALITIES. TERMINOLOGY. STANDARDIZATION. DOCUMENTATION
• ICS: 33.140 - Special measuring equipment for use in telecommunications
• ICS: 33.180.10 - Fibres and cables
• Technical Committee: TC 86 - Fibre optics
• Drafting Committee: WG 4 - TC 86/WG 4
• Current Stage: PPUB - Publication issued
• Start Date: 09-Apr-2019
• Completion Date: 29-Mar-2019

Relations

• Revises: IEC 61315:2005 - Calibration of fibre-optic power meters
• Effective Date: 05-Sep-2023

Standards Content (Sample)

IEC 61315 ®
Edition 3.0 2019-03
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Calibration of fibre-optic power meters

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
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International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

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IEC 61315 ®
Edition 3.0 2019-03
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Calibration of fibre-optic power meters

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.140; 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-8322-6732-5

– 2 – IEC 61315:2019 RLV © IEC 2019
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms and definitions. 7
4 Preparation for calibration . 16
4.1 Organization. 16
4.2 Traceability . 17
4.3 Advice for measurements and calibrations . 17
4.4 Recommendations to customers users . 18
5 Absolute power calibration . 18
5.1 Calibration methods . 18
5.2 Establishing the calibration conditions . 19
5.3 Calibration procedure . 20
5.4 Calibration uncertainty . 21
5.4.1 General . 21
5.4.2 Uncertainty due to the setup . 22
5.4.3 Uncertainty of the reference meter . 22
5.4.4 Correction factors and uncertainty caused by the change of conditions . 23
5.4.5 Uncertainty due to the test meter spectral bandwidths . 27
5.5 Reporting the results . 28
6 Measurement uncertainty of a calibrated power meter . 28
6.1 Overview . 28
6.2 Uncertainty at reference conditions . 28
6.3 Uncertainty at operating conditions . 29
6.3.1 General . 29
6.3.2 Determination of dependences on conditions . 30
6.3.3 Ageing . 30
6.3.4 Dependence on temperature . 31
6.3.5 Dependence on the power level (nonlinearity). 31
6.3.6 Dependence on the type of fibre or on the beam geometry . 31
6.3.7 Dependence on the connector-adapter combination . 33
6.3.8 Dependence on wavelength . 33
6.3.9 Dependence on spectral bandwidth . 34
6.3.10 Dependence on polarization . 35
6.3.11 Other dependences . 35
7 Nonlinearity calibration . 35
7.1 General . 35
7.2 Nonlinearity calibration based on superposition . 36
7.2.1 General . 36
7.2.2 Procedure . 37
7.2.3 Uncertainties. 38
7.3 Nonlinearity calibration based on comparison with a calibrated power meter . 39
7.3.1 General . 39
7.3.2 Procedure . 39

7.3.3 Uncertainties. 39
7.4 Nonlinearity calibration based on comparison with an attenuator . 40
7.5 Calibration of power meter for high power measurement . 40
Annex A (normative) Mathematical basis for measurement uncertainty calculations . 41
A.1 General . 41
A.2 Type A evaluation of uncertainty . 41
A.3 Type B evaluation of uncertainty . 42
A.4 Determining the combined standard uncertainty . 42
A.5 Reporting . 43
Annex B (informative) Linear to dB scale conversion of uncertainties . 44
B.1 Definition of decibel . 44
B.2 Conversion of relative uncertainties . 44
Bibliography . 45

Figure 1 – Typical spectral responsivity of photoelectric detectors . 14
Figure 2 – Example of a traceability chain . 16
Figure 3 – Measurement setup for sequential, fibre-based calibration . 19
Figure 4 – Change of conditions and uncertainty . 24
Figure 5 – Determining and recording an extension uncertainty . 30
Figure 6 – Possible subdivision of the optical reference plane into 10 × 10 squares, for
the measurement of the spatial response . 31
Figure 7 – Wavelength dependence of response due to Fabry-Perot type interference . 34
Figure 8 – Measurement setup of polarization dependent response . 35
Figure 9 – Nonlinearity calibration based on superposition . 36
Figure 10 – Measurement setup for nonlinearity calibration by comparison . 39

Table 1 – Calibration methods and correspondent typical power . 19
Table 2 – Nonlinearity . 38

– 4 – IEC 61315:2019 RLV © IEC 2019
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
CALIBRATION OF FIBRE-OPTIC POWER METERS

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
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...

IEC 61315 ®
Edition 3.0 2019-03
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
colour
inside
Calibration of fibre-optic power meters

Étalonnage de wattmètres pour dispositifs à fibres optiques

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
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About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional languages.
and withdrawn publications. Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary

(IEV) online.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
details all new publications released. Available online and once 67 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in English and
a month by email. French extracted from the Terms and Definitions clause of IEC
publications issued since 2002. Some entries have been
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37, 77, 86 and
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or need CISPR.

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IEC 61315 ®
Edition 3.0 2019-03
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
colour
inside
Calibration of fibre-optic power meters

Étalonnage de wattmètres pour dispositifs à fibres optiques

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 33.140; 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-8322-6640-3

– 2 – IEC 61315:2019 © IEC 2019
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms and definitions. 7
4 Preparation for calibration . 15
4.1 Organization. 15
4.2 Traceability . 15
4.3 Advice for measurements and calibrations . 15
4.4 Recommendations to users . 16
5 Absolute power calibration . 16
5.1 Calibration methods . 16
5.2 Establishing the calibration conditions . 17
5.3 Calibration procedure . 18
5.4 Calibration uncertainty . 19
5.4.1 General . 19
5.4.2 Uncertainty due to the setup . 19
5.4.3 Uncertainty of the reference meter . 20
5.4.4 Correction factors and uncertainty caused by the change of conditions . 21
5.4.5 Uncertainty due to the spectral bandwidths . 24
5.5 Reporting the results . 25
6 Measurement uncertainty of a calibrated power meter . 26
6.1 Overview . 26
6.2 Uncertainty at reference conditions . 26
6.3 Uncertainty at operating conditions . 26
6.3.1 General . 26
6.3.2 Determination of dependences on conditions . 27
6.3.3 Ageing . 28
6.3.4 Dependence on temperature . 28
6.3.5 Dependence on the power level (nonlinearity). 28
6.3.6 Dependence on the type of fibre or on the beam geometry . 29
6.3.7 Dependence on the connector-adapter combination . 30
6.3.8 Dependence on wavelength . 31
6.3.9 Dependence on spectral bandwidth . 32
6.3.10 Dependence on polarization . 32
6.3.11 Other dependences . 33
7 Nonlinearity calibration . 33
7.1 General . 33
7.2 Nonlinearity calibration based on superposition . 33
7.2.1 General . 33
7.2.2 Procedure . 34
7.2.3 Uncertainties. 35
7.3 Nonlinearity calibration based on comparison with a calibrated power meter . 36
7.3.1 General . 36
7.3.2 Procedure . 36

7.3.3 Uncertainties. 37
7.4 Nonlinearity calibration based on comparison with an attenuator . 37
7.5 Calibration of power meter for high power measurement . 37
Annex A (normative) Mathematical basis for measurement uncertainty calculations . 38
A.1 General . 38
A.2 Type A evaluation of uncertainty . 38
A.3 Type B evaluation of uncertainty . 39
A.4 Determining the combined standard uncertainty . 39
A.5 Reporting . 40
Annex B (informative) Linear to dB scale conversion of uncertainties . 41
B.1 Definition of decibel . 41
B.2 Conversion of relative uncertainties . 41
Bibliography . 42

Figure 1 – Typical spectral responsivity of photoelectric detectors . 13
Figure 2 – Example of a traceability chain . 14
Figure 3 – Measurement setup for sequential, fibre-based calibration . 17
Figure 4 – Change of conditions and uncertainty . 22
Figure 5 – Determining and recording an extension uncertainty . 27
Figure 6 – Possible subdivision of the optical reference plane into 10 × 10 squares, for
the measurement of the spatial response . 29
Figure 7 – Wavelength dependence of response due to Fabry-Perot type interference . 32
Figure 8 – Measurement setup of polarization dependent response . 32
Figure 9 – Nonlinearity calibration based on superposition . 34
Figure 10 – Measurement setup for nonlinearity calibration by comparison . 36

Table 1 – Calibration methods and correspondent typical power . 16
Table 2 – Nonlinearity . 35

– 4 – IEC 61315:2019 © IEC 2019
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
CALIBRATION OF FIBRE-OPTIC POWER METERS

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic f
...