ALMA Fibre Optic Amplifier/Demultiplexer module

ALMA Back-End Engineers Silvio Rossi (right) and Herve Kurlandczyk (left) discussing the final assembly of the Fibre Optic Amplifier/Demultiplexer module (FOAD). Each FOAD module demultiplexes the 12 slightly different wavelengths of the DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) optical signal coming from the ALMA Antennas. After completion of ALMA construction, 80 of these modules will be installed in the AOS Technical Building, at 5000 m altitude on the Chajnantor plateau.