An automated measurement system for testing optical modules in particle accelerators

The TTC-PON system (Timing, Trigger and Control system based on Passive Optical Networks) is proposed to replace the current TTC system, responsible for delivering the bunch clock, trigger and control commands to the LHC experiments. During phase-1 upgrades, it will be installed in the ALICE experiment and PON optical modules will also be deployed in the LHCb experiment. Therefore, a quality assurance campaign was carried out to ensure that the optical components to be installed were within the TTC-PON specifications, an evolution of the XG-PON standard. The transceivers tested were divided in ONU (Optical Network Unit) and OLT (Optical Line Terminal). Their characterization was based on the evaluation of their performances as transmitters and receivers, and on the verification of their behaviour in temperature. In this context, I worked on the software optimization of the custom-made Python library used to execute an automated test routine, I created from scratch the software used for the implementation of the temperature tests, and I analyzed in-depth the outcomes obtained. The results of the quality assurance campaign were significant, since a totally non-working ONU module was detected, and a few OLT and ONU modules out-of-specification were identified. This thesis will cover an overview of the TTC-PON system, focusing on the aforementioned quality assurance process experience and results.