Manufacturing

A hollow silica tube is

heated to about 1500°C
and a mixture of oxygen
and metal halide gases is
passed through it. A
chemical reaction occurs
within the gas and a
glass soot is formed and
deposited on the inside
of the tube.
There are several
different methods in
use today but the most
widespread is called the
modified chemical
vapor deposition
(MCVD) process.
Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition(MCVD)
 Advantages
 Immunity from Electrical
Interference
 No Crosstalk
 Good Insulator
 More Bandwidth
 Security ( no Radiation )
 Low Losses ( 0.2 dB per km )
 Size and Weight
 Single Fiber ( no return wire )
Connecting Fibers
Compatibility
 Core Diameter
 Numerical Aperture
Remember that the formula only applies when the numerical
aperture of the launch fiber is greater than that of the receiving
fiber. Otherwise no losses occur.
Alignmaent
 Gap
 Lateral misalignment
 Core alignment
(eccentricity)
 Angular misalignment
1. Stripping Safety points – don’t get optic fiber inside you
 Chemical
 Mechanical
2. Cleaning with Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) or Acetone
3. Cleaving
Inspection
 Fusion Splicing
Fusion splicing is the most permanent and lowest loss method of
connecting optic fibers.
In essence, the two fibers are simply aligned then joined by electric
arc welding.
The resulting connection has a loss of less than 0.05 dB, about 1%
power loss.
Most fusion splicers can handle both single mode and multimode
fibers in a variety of sizes but, due to the losses involved, we can only
splice multimode to multimode or single mode to single mode.
There are also splicers that can automatically splice multicore and
ribbon cable up to 12 fibers at a time.
Fusion Splicing
Strip off five meters of outer jacket to enable the fiber to be lifted
out of the enclosure with enough spare fiber to be easily connected
to test equipment or a fusion splicer.
The extra precision is provided by using stepper motors or piezo-
electric drive blocks.
CCD camera (CCD charge coupled device)
LID – light injection and detection system
Pre-fuse
Main fuse
Good Splice
 Practical summary – how to do it
1. Consult the instruction books of the splicer and the splice
protector to find the recommended stripping lengths of the primary
buffer.
2. Strip off the outer jackets and the required length of the primary
buffer.
3. Slip on a splice protector.
4. Clean the fiber.
5. Cleave it.
6. If you are not familiar with the splicer, read the handbook. They all
differ in the requirements for loading and positioning the fiber.
7. In a typical case, the fibers are inserted into the vee-grooves and
moved until the ends of the fibers meet guide lines visible through
the lens or camera. Clamp them in position. Have a look at the
standard of the cleaves and, if necessary, take the fiber out and try
again.
Practical summary – how to do it
8. Set the splicing program to match the fiber in use. The handbook
will provide guidance.
9. Press the start button and leave it. The program will run through
its positioning and splicing procedure, and then stop.
10. Carefully lift it out of the vee-grooves and slide the splice
protector along the fiber until it is centered over the splice. Make
sure you have at least 10 mm of primary buffer inside the splice
protector and place it gently in the oven. On some splicers, even this
is done for you.
11. Switch on the oven and in a minute or two it will switch off.
Mechanical Splicing

1.
2.

3. Precision Tube A hole, very slightly larger than the

fiber diameter is formed through a
piece of ceramic or other material.
Points to note in mechanical splices
 Cladding and buffer diameter
 Insertion loss
 Return loss
 Fiber retention
Practical guide to fitting a typical mechanical splice
Connectors
Connectors
Parameters
 Insertion loss
 Return loss
 Mating durability
 Operating temperature
 Cable Retention
 Repeatability
 Colour scheme
Termination Methods
 Choosing and Fitting
 Heat Cured Epoxy
 Pot and Polish
 Cold-Cure or Anaerobic (without Oxygen)
 Ultraviolet Cured
 Hot Melt
 Crimp and Cleave
 Splicing pre-made Tails ( pigtail )
 Hybrid
 Assignment #2 --- 14 Mar to 20 Mar 2019
Describe termination methods and fitting of a connector on a silica
fiber (chapter 12) in your own words and handwriting.
Coupler
 Splitter
 Combiner
Splitting or Coupling Ratio

Throughput Port (90% or 50%)

Tap Port (10% or 50%)
Losses
 Excess loss

 Directionality loss or Crosstalk or Directivity

 Insertion loss or Port-to-Port loss or Throughput loss or Tap loss

 Coupling loss
Tee Coupler

The couplers are readily available and, if required, can be supplied

with connectors already fitted.
The disadvantage is the rapid reduction in the power available to
each of the workstations as we connect more and more terminals
to the network.
Total power reduction
is 0.2 + 0.3 = 0.5 dB.
 Star Coupler

Styles of up to 1 X 32 and up to 32 X 32 are commonly available.

Advantages and disadvantages
The main advantage of
using star couplers is that
the losses are lower than a
tee coupler for networks of
more than three or four
terminals.

The disadvantage is that the star coupler will normally use much
larger quantities of cable to connect the terminals since the star is
located centrally and a separate cable is connected to each of the
terminals.