EUR600,000 grant for 43Gbit/s BERT tester for Bristol University

7 October 2002 -- The Optics Group of Bristol University's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering has taken delivery of the first Anritsu 43.5Gbit/s Bit Error Rate Test (BERT) system to be sold in the UK.

A grant of over EUR600,000 from Anritsu's Philanthropy Programme has supported the purchase of the ME7750A system, plus a number of items of support equipment including a spectrum analyser, an optical power meter and an optical attenuator.

The Optics Group at Bristol is working in three areas:

1. Novel components/new materials - 1.3-1.55 micron wavelength materials and device designs are being investigated for enhanced switching speeds, temperature insensitivity and broadband gain for wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) applications. The group fabricates and tests lasers by post-processing using a focused ion-beam etching system.

2. RF over fibre - The group is investigating new sub-carrier modulation techniques. The test system is being used as a parallel data source, allowing the investigation of WDM systems using the system's four channels.

3. Switching and routing - It is researching a fast optical switch matrix for optical packet switching, a fast tunable laser for optical packet routing and novel integrated all-optical wavelength conversion technology.

Anritsu's ME7750A generates and analyses high speed pseudo-random digital signals to test components, devices, interfaces and complete transmission equipments. It includes a four-channel pattern generator, a four-channel error detector, and multiplexer and demultiplexer units, and provides tools to analyse any bit rate, with operation frequency from 100MHz to 43.5GHz. The system can be used to test a 40Gbit/s signal with forward error correction (FEC) redundancy up to 43.5GHz, or four parallel channels at 10Gbit/s with FEC.

"We are also looking forward to offering a service to companies either utilising time on the system or contracting us to examine their components," said Dr Judy Rorison, Head of the Optics Group at Bristol University's Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department.

"Anritsu's Philanthropy Programme is aimed at 5* and above, or Universities whose research aligns itself with Anritsu's strategic plans," said Ken Foan, Anritsu's UK Sales Manager. "We have already identified several that meet our criteria and have made grants to enable them to purchase equipment that they would otherwise not be able to afford," he adds. "The universities can also obtain Government funding to match the donations they receive from Anritsu. The programme is also working with universities in other ways, including sponsoring awards for best student, best academic paper and others."