As we mentioned in the last article，PLC splitter is widely used in PON. Now let's learn more about PLC splitter in this essay.

Introduction to PLC splitter

PLC splitter(Planar Lightwave Circuit Splitter) is a type of optical power management device that is fabricated using silica optical waveguide technology. PLC splitter  which has multiple input and output ports, divides an input optical signal into a plurality of output optical signals with certain splitting ratios. Therefore, it is very suitable for PON to branch the optical signal. Now there are two kinds of PLC Splitter: 1×N and 2×N, such as 1x2、1x4、2x4、2x8，etc.

The Materials of PLC Splitter

(1) PLC chip is based on Semiconductor technology (lithography, corrosion and other technologies). The splitter function is on the chip.		(2) FA ( Fiber Array) is formed by a bundle of optical fibers or an optical fiber assembling on V-Groove substrate with specified space.

PLC splitter consists of  PLC chip and FA. The structure is that FA are coupled to each end of the chip.

Advantages and Applications of PLC splitter

PLC splitter's even beam split can distribute signal to the users evenly and the channel can reach 64CH, which makes PLC splitter widely used in PON to maximize the user capacity of optical fiber network. The development of FTTR also increases the demand of unbalanced splitter. In the meanwhlie, it features compact structure, small size and large installation space is not required, so it can be used in a variety of Cross Connecting Cabinet.