Described herein is a wavelength reference device comprising a housing defining an internal environment having a known temperature. A broadband optical source is disposed within the housing and configured to emit an optical signal along an optical path. The optical signal has optical power within a wavelength band of interest. An optical etalon is also disposed within the housing and positioned in the optical path to filter the optical signal to define a filtered optical signal that includes one or more reference spectral features having a known wavelength at the known temperature. The device also includes an optical output for outputting the filtered optical signal.