According to different manufacturing technologies, fiber optic splitters can be divided into PLC splitter and FBT splitter.

Both FBT splitters and PLC splitters have found their ways in passive optical networks with the rapid growth in FTTX networks. In Fiberstore, you can find PLC splitters with standard LGX and ABS box package, as well as FBT coupler splitters with single, dual and three windows for PON system. Please visit Fiberstore for more information about optical splitters.

PLC refers to a planar lightwave circuit. As a micro-optical device, a PLC splitter uses an optical chip to split the input signal into various outputs. At the edge of the chip, there is a light circuit in ribbon form mounted on a carrier and fibers. PLC splitter typically adopts silica glass as the material of the lightwave circuit and accepts different types of polished finishes. The substrate, waveguide and lid are three basic layers of the PLC splitter. For different applications, PLC splitters can be further categorized into different types including bare PLC splitters, blockless PLC splitters, ABS PLC splitters, LGX box PLC splitters, mini plug-in type PLC splitters, tray-type PLC splitters and 1U rack mount PLC splitters.

FBT Couplers The performance of all couplers varies with wavelength. Coupler performance is usually specified over a wavelength window, or in some cases, multiple windows. The center wavelength is the nominal wavelength of operation of the coupler, while the bandpass is the range of wavelengths over which the specifications are guaranteed. In many cases, couplers will perform adequately over a range outside their bandpass, but adherence to specifications is not guaranteed in this region.

Differences Between PLC & FBT Splitters PLC and FBT splitters may look similar to each other, yet they still have many differences when it comes to actual applications. Here will compare them from several aspects.
Splitting Ratio
The splitting ratio is decided by the inputs and outputs of a splitter. A PLC splitter is available with the splitting ratio of 1:64, which means one light beam can be separated into 64 splits at a time. However, an FBT splitter is typically used for networks requiring the splitter configuration of fewer than 4 splits. When its splitting ratio is larger than 1:8, more errors will occur and cause a higher failure rate. Thus, the FBT splitter is more restricted to the number of splits in one coupling.

Wavelength Range
PLC splitter has a wider operating wavelength ranging from 1260 nm to 1620 nm, thus it can be applied to most of the applications in FTTx and PON networks. On the contrary, FBT splitter has a limitation only to be used for 850nm, 1310nm and 1550nm wavelengths. This leads to the unavailability of an FBT splitter on other wavelengths. Wavelength isolation is a measure of how well different wavelengths are separated at the output of a wavelength division demultiplexer. It is defined as the ratio of the optical power at the two output ports of the demultiplexer at a given wavelength, expressed in dB. The minimum wavelength isolation is the lower limit to the wavelength isolation measured over the entire wavelength range of the specified bandpass. Wavelength isolation has also been referred to as far-end crosstalk.
Temperature-Dependent Loss
Temperature-dependent loss (TDL) of the splitter is affected by the manufacturing process and the sensitivity of the device. Once the working temperature of the splitter is out of range, insertion loss will increase and influence the performance of the splitter. PLC splitter is able to work at the temperature of -40 to 85 Celsius degrees while FBT splitter can only work at -5 to 75 Celsius degrees.
Price
Owing to the complicated manufacturing technology of PLC splitter, its cost is generally higher than the FBT type. If your application is simple and short of funds, FBT splitter is definitely a cost-effective solution.
Uniformity
Uniformity is a measure of how evenly power is distributed between the output ports of the coupler. Uniformity applies to couplers with a nominally equal coupling ratio and is defined as the difference between the highest and lowest insertion loss between all of the coupler output ports,expressed in dB. Uniformity is a typical value across the entire bandpass.