Abstract: A text fixture (1) comprises apparatus (4) for verifying the color and brightness of light emitted from LEDs (5) of a printed circuit board (3). A base (6) of the fixture (1) supports the printed circuit board (3) during testing. A mounting panel (14) locates ends (15) of a plurality of optical fibers (10) adjacent the LEDs (5) on the printed circuit board (3), and ends (21) of ht optical fibers (10) are terminated in a terminating panel (20) adjacent an image sensing panel (11). The image sensing panel (11) comprises an array of individually addressable light and color sensitive pixels (25) onto which light from the optical fibers (10) is incident. An analysing circuit (12) scans the pixels (25) for determining the brightness values and the tristimulus values of the incident light, and a control circuit (9) compares the tristimulus values and brightness values with reference tristimulus and brightness values for verifying the color and brightness of the light emitted by the respective LEDs (5).

Abstract: A test fixture (1) comprises apparatus (4) for verifying the colour and brightness of light emitted from LEDs (5) of a printed circuit board (3). A base (6) of the fixture (1) supports the printed circuit board (3) during testing. A mounting panel (14) locates ends (15) of a plurality of optical fibres (10) adjacent the LEDs (5) on the printed circuit board (3), and ends (21) of the optical fibres (10) are terminated in a terminating panel (20) adjacent an image sensing panel (11). The image sensing panel (11) comprises an array of individually addressable light and colour sensitive pixels (25) onto which light from the optical fibres (10) is incident. An analysing circuit (12) scans the pixels (25) for determining the brightness values and the tristimulus values of the incident light, and a control circuit (9) compares the tristimulus values and brightness values with reference tristimulus and brightness values for verifying the colour and brightness of the light emitted by the respective LEDs (5).

Abstract: A method for making an optical fiber fusion joint between two dissimilar single mode optical fibers (10,40) where the fibers have different core sizes and/or different refractive index profiles due to different patterns of dopant. One fiber may be a standard step-index communication fiber with a 9 &mgr;m core diameter and a numerical aperture (NA) of about 0.1, and the second fiber may be a dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) with a multiple layer refractive index profile. The second fiber alternatively may have a smaller core and a higher NA, up to about 0.3. A diffused dopant region, with a gradual longitudinal variation in diffusion, is included adjacent to the splice. The diameter of the communications fiber core increases gradually within the diffusion region as the splice joint is approached along this fiber. The diffusion of the various dopants in the second fiber tend to cause its refractive index profile to converge optically to that of the diffused step index communication fiber.