The HP/Agilent 8164A is a modular optical measurement mainframe designed for wavelength-dependent component and system characterization across telecommunications and photonics applications. This platform integrates tunable laser sources, power meters, and specialized measurement modules into a single instrument for R&D, quality assurance, and production testing environments.
Technical Specifications
Display & User Interface
• Active color LCD: 600 × 400 pixels
• VGA connector for external monitor support
• PS/2 keyboard connector
Data Acquisition & Control
• GPIB interface (IEEE 488.1, SH1, AH1, T6, L4, SR1, RL1, PPO, DC2, DTO, CO)
• RS-232C serial (up to 115,200 bps)
• Configurable hardware trigger input/output ports
• PC Card slot (Type I, II, III; PCMCIA 2.1/JEIDA 4.1 compliant)
• Parallel printer port (Centronics)
Storage
• Internal HDD: 2000 MB ATA
• PC and SRAM card support
– Key Features
• Five module slots: one dedicated tunable laser source position (bottom slot) plus four additional slots for power meters, return loss modules, or fixed laser sources
• Passive Component Test, Stability, and Logging functions built-in
• Hardware trigger integration for automated test sequences
– Supported Modules
HP 81640A Tunable Laser
• Wavelength range: 1510 nm to 1640 nm
• Absolute wavelength accuracy: ±0.3 nm typical
• Relative wavelength accuracy: ±0.3 nm
• Wavelength resolution: 10 pm
• Signal-to-SSE ratio: 40 dB/nm typical
• Bottom slot installation
HP 81680A Tunable Laser
• 1550 nm band operation
• Absolute wavelength accuracy: ±2 pm typical
• Signal-to-SSE ratio: 45 dB/nm typical
• Bottom slot installation
– Typical Applications
• Optical component transmission and return loss characterization
• Wavelength-dependent power measurements
• Polarization analysis
• Automated production test environments
