FO-A · Certified Fiber Technician (Level A)
Course lessons
1 Anatomy of an optical fiber
### What a fiber really is An optical fiber is a hair-thin strand of ultra-pure glass that guides light. It has four layers you must know…
2 How light stays in the fiber
### Total internal reflection Light bends when it crosses between materials of different refractive index. When it tries to leave a dense…
3 Wavelengths, attenuation and dispersion
### The three windows Fiber is not equally transparent at every color of light. Practical systems use three infrared **windows**: **850…
4 Fiber families: OM and OS classes
### Multimode — the OM ladder ISO/IEC 11801 grades multimode fiber by bandwidth: **OM1** (62.5 µm, legacy, orange), **OM2** (50 µm,…
5 Cables: construction, ratings and color code
### How fibers become cables Bare fiber cannot be installed; cables package it for the environment. **Loose-tube** designs float 250 µm…
6 Connectors and polish types
### The big three plus one **LC** — 1.25 mm ferrule, small duplex latch; dominates transceivers (SFP/SFP+/QSFP) and high-density panels.…
7 Splicing and termination fundamentals
### Fusion splicing — the gold standard A fusion splicer aligns two cleaved fibers and welds them with an electric arc. Core-alignment…
8 Inspection and cleaning discipline
### The #1 cause of failures Industry surveys agree: **contaminated connector endfaces cause more optical failures than every other cause…
9 Basic testing: power meters and loss budgets
### The instruments of Level A **VFL (visual fault locator)** — a red laser that lights up breaks, macrobends and connector faults within a…
10 Safety: lasers, glass and the worksite
### Invisible light, real hazards Fiber systems use infrared light you cannot see or blink against. IEC 60825 classifies laser hazards;…
Exam rules
- 100 questions, randomly drawn and shuffled per candidate
- 120 minutes — the exam auto-submits when time ends
- Pass mark 70% · certificate valid 3 years
- Levels must be passed in order: A → B → C