MPO cleaning guidelines are much like those for single-fiber connectors. In November 2020, Fiber Optic Center posted an article on cleaning and inspecting connector ends, Ten Practical Tips for Cleaning Connector Ends. With the article below, we are expanding
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This article continues FOC’s latest series on optical fiber manufacturing processes, providing an overview of coatings for a wide range of standard communication and specialty optical fibers. The main job of coatings is to protect the glass fiber, but there...
In this article, the latest in FOC’s series covering specialty fibers and their fabrication, we discuss polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers and the various approaches used to make them. There are several PM fiber designs – all quite different and each with it
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The digital divide is a popular term we hear from both government officials and local communities. The official definition of the digital divide is the gulf between those who have ready access to computers and the Internet, and those who do not. A key part of
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Objectives of the fiber drawing process -
The draw process takes a specialty fiber preform that may measure one meter in length and stretches it into hundreds of meters or even multiple kilometers of fiber. The preform is designed and fabricated with dopants and
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Since 2018, FOC has provided more than 10 articles on making fiber and preforms. One series of seven articles, launched in January 2018 and written by Larry Donalds, focuses on MCVD technology and issues in making preforms. The second series, started in July...
Every step requires precision, starting with the core rod. This is the third in FOC’s new series on doped fiber technology. The first article, "Rare Earth Doped Fibers," reviewed the main methods for making doped-fiber preforms. The second article, "Thulium...
MT ferrules require different polishing procedures. In Part 1 of this series, we covered the use of films with pressure-sensitive adhesives. In Part 2, we covered films for polishing zirconia ferrules. In this article, we focus on the special products needed to
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The fiber optic assemblies - patch cords, pigtails, and terminated truck cables - have a series of standards to comply with today’s installations into high-speed networks and telco applications. From an industry standpoint, there are a series of requirements
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Recognizing that there are quite a few connectors on the market that are actively being used in fiber optic installations, there are also some older types and discontinued connectors, not being used in the mainstream of data and telco markets, but used in more...
