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D Fiber Maintenance
Fiber tip cleaning
Only use cleaning tools specifically designed for use with optical fibers. Always
use extreme caution when cleaning fibers.
Examples of appropriate cleaning tools are:
Lens cleaning tissue (lint free wipes) see Figure 62
Optical fiber cleaning tool see Figure 63
Figure 62 Lens cleaning tissue - lint free
Figure 63 Optical fiber cleaning tool
Signs of damage Indications of a damaged fiber facet may be due to one of the following:
• Power suddenly decreases (from e.g. 100 mW to 60-70 mW)
• The spectrum (recorded from an optical spectrum analyzer) is significantly
degraded compared to the original spectrum found in the measurement
report.
• Light emitted from the fiber facet results in with a large color variation. A
correct hexagonal pattern vs a random is shown in Figure 64.