Patent ID: 7885540

Claim:
A method of measuring an optical modulation amplitude (OMA) value associated with an input signal, comprising the steps of: applying the input signal to a photodetector, wherein the photodetector is calibrated to have a given responsivity value R, and further wherein the photodetector generates an output signal in response to the input signal; applying the output signal from the photodetector to a radio frequency (RF) power meter, wherein the RF power meter measures the root mean squared (RMS) power value of the output signal received from the photodetector; and determining the OMA value associated with the input signal in response to the root mean squared (RMS) power value measured by the RF power meter; wherein the step of determining the OMA value in response to the RMS power value comprises: determining an RMS signal current based at least in part on the RMS power value; determining a peak current based at least in part on the RMS signal current and a factor F; and determining the OMA value based at least in part on the peak current and the responsivity value R of the photodetector.