OMC has released a hermetically-sealed 850nm fibre optic transmitter diode which produces a high-intensity output for coupling into multimode fibres even in tough environments. Created for applications where long term reliability is paramount, this device is highly specialised with very few similar products offered on the market globally. The product is ideal for a wide range of fibre optic applications including datacomms, encoding, sensing, instrumentation and signalling, ensuring speed and integrity of signal over a long operating life.

The emitter features a hermetically-sealed TO-can body with glass optical window that assists in protecting the device internals from atmospheric conditions. The device offers fast rise/fall times allowing high-speed operation in the tens of MHz, and contains integral micro-optics which focus the beam to a very narrow point which delivers efficient coupling into multimode glass optical fibres as small as 50µm, delivering a typical launch power of 30µW at 100mA into 50/125 fibre.

Many fibre-optic emitters make use of a clear plastic cap which is pressed on to the device header. While this gives a degree of physical protection to the LED chip, wire-bond and internal optics, it is uncommon for such a cap to give a hermetic seal, meaning that the potential long-term effects of environmental aspects such as humidity on the device internals must be meticulously considered in applications where long service life is essential. By contrast, the hermetically sealed housing of the device removes this variable, as air from the operational environment cannot reach the internal components.