Optoelectronics

With cutting-edge technological laboratories and expert engineers in Optoelectronics and New technologies, ALTER TECHNOLOGY performs optoelectronics components testing (laser, detectors, image sensors, optical transceivers, optical amplifiers, optical modulators, fibers) with specific capabilities on optoelectronics measurements as well as mechanical, thermal, radiation and constructional analysis tests.

In addition, the experience of ALTER in the management of space projects, together with the company’s commitment to the research and development activities, has been reflected in the company’s participation in many projects as coordinator of other research and/or development groups.

Optoelectronics Components Testing

We introduce you to our success cases of our Optoelectronics LAB, in which we share all the technical knowledge we apply to perform, in some cases, a complete sequence of tests.

High-power lasers (30watts in this case) require specific test setups and important safety considerations to avoid dangerous situations in DUT/setup failure. Testing many lasers increases the difficulty and introduces additional considerations like heat handling or preventing a laser from damaging another.

In this success case, we present two challenges we had to face to meet the requirements of power laser users.

Vacancy exposure may cause changes in filling isolating materials even at room temperature. HV Optocouplers connect two different circuits while maintaining high electrical isolation between them.

In this successful case, you will learn how we did custom thermal vacuum chamber HV testing, device video recording, and HV optocouplers verification requirements.

Laser diodes characterization can be complex due to the laser’s nature. A good heat dissipation must be provided to avoid lasers being damaged. Unique and challenging equipment is required for a perfect characterization because accuracy is a must with this optical component.

The real challenge? The test setup definition and implementation when lasers must be tested in extreme conditions, like vacuum or high/low temperatures.

When a component is tested in extreme temperature conditions, it becomes challenging to design a reliable test setup. If, in addition, components must be in vacuum conditions and electro-optical characterization is required at different temperatures, complexity increases exponentially.

In this document, we will talk about thermal conductivity and how we achieve a shallow temperature within the framework of Qualification tests.

The electrical characterization has not only to be able to heat a device up to 500°C but needs to meet four conditions and perform to validate the sensors in fully representative requirements inside a fusion reactor.

Learn how Alter Technology has developed a test setup capable of electrically characterizing the radiation sensors at temperatures of 500°C or higher.

Throughout history, Space agencies have carried out numerous research projects to develop systems to detect and quantify the concentration of Greenhouse gases. The measurement system used for this purpose is called LIDAR.

In the European H2020 project called HOLDON, ALTER (one of the seven project partners) developed a NIR-VIS-UV Lidar Echo Emulator, the essential component of the final Lidar detection module.

One of our customers requested that we carry a thermal cycling test at extreme temperatures (between 93ºC and -178ºC) over some VIS-NIR calibration sources (five samples at a time). At the same time, these sources were tested in vacuum conditions, and electro-optical characterization at different temperatures during cycling was requested.

How did we do it? We tell you about it in this successful case.

The satellite market is experiencing a paradigm shift with the photonics penetration in every part of the satellite payload.

To research these promising chips, ALTER collaborates with the academic world, mainly in radiation. The company is collaborating with both the University of Cardiff and the UPM. In both collaborations, ALTER performs gamma and proton radiation at various PICs.

We have carried out a test campaign of thermal vacuum cycles, mechanical tests, and radiation tests to evaluate the performance for space applications of commercial off-the-shelf fiber-coupled optical switches with no-moving parts based on different technologies.

In this case, we will show you how we selected the devices, the electro-optical characterization, and the results and conclusions we obtained at the end of this test campaign.

Optical transceivers are small photonics devices transmitting and receiving information at high transmission rates. They can be employed in different fields such as space.

In this case, we will show you how we have performed a performance evaluation of several optical transceivers using a system integrated with a bit-error-rate analyzer, a high-bandwidth oscilloscope, and a pulse pattern generator with a bandwidth up to 28 Gbps/s.