- By OLE (Optical Lin Extender), we mean a fiber optic link employed to extend a LIN bus. LIN is an acronym for Local Interconnect Network, that is a low cost, low speed, serial communication bus for distributed electronic systems on board a vehicle. It is a sort of complement to other buses like CAN that are used for faster or more demanding applications. It is a one-wire bus and typically it connects in a very cost effective way smart sensors and actuators where bandwidth and versatility of CAN connections are not necessary.
- The need for a fiber optic extension of LIN may arise mainly for the performance of immunity tests in an anechoic chamber
- In such case the EUT attached to LIN network must be radiated by a transmitting antenna while the LIN analyzer or any other component appended to the LIN (Auxiliary Test equipment) is placed outside of the radiated zone, normally in the control room. The decoupling between EUT and Auxiliary Test Equipment is easily achieved by means of a fiber optic cable inserted between two transceivers that transform the electrical signal into an optic signal and viceversa. As EMC automotive tests require high field levels, at least the transceiver placed in the chamber close to the EUT must be RF shielded.