Optical fiber manufacturing techniques

There are various methods of manufacturing optical fiber, but all involve the drawing down of an optical fiber preform into a long strand of core and cladding material. The manufacturing process divides into two quite distinct phases: First the manufacture of the optical fiber preforms; Second the manufacture of the primary coated optical fiber from that preform.

Preform Manufacture
1. Stepped index fiber performs a. Rod-in-tube The simplest method of producing a corecladding structure is to take a glass tube of low refractive index, and place it around a rod of higher index material and apply heat to bond the tube to the rod (see Fig.1). This creates a preform containing a core of refractive index n1 surrounded by a cladding of refractive index n2 which can be subsequently processed. To produce fibers capable of transmitting data, highpurity glasses were used, and to produce large core diameter, high NA fibers these methods are still applicable.

Fig.1 Rod-in-tube Preform manufacture

b. Double Crucible One of the main disadvantages of the rod-in-tube process is the necessity for the provision of high-quality glass materials in both the rod and tube formats. The double crucible method overcame this drawback by using glass powders which are subsequently reduced to a molten state prior to their final combination to create the fiber preform. Fig.2 below shows a typical arrangement where two concentric crucibles are filled with powdered glasses. The outer crucible contains glass of a low refractive index while the central crucible contains glass having a suitable refractive index to produce the fiber core. Heat is applied to both crucibles to form melts which are then drawn down to create a fused preform having the desired aspect ratio and numerical aperture. Both rod-in-tube and double crucible methods were, and are, adequate for the production of large core diameter, high NA optical fibers.

2. All Silica-Fiber Preforms

The glass fibers mentioned above with large core diameter, high NA constructions all exhibit relatively high optical attenuation values together with low bandwidths. This is, in part, due to their construction having been produced in a stepped index configuration with high numerical aperture, but the individual glass materials have relatively high material absorption characteristics. Silica, better known as quartz, is pure silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is relatively easy to produce synthetically. It also exhibits low levels of attenuation. It was a natural candidate for the production of optical fibers but has one drawback: it has a very low refractive index, which means that it has to be processed in a special fashion before it is made into a preform. 2.1. Small-core, graded index fibers The hunger for bandwidth can be met in two ways. The first, reduction of intermodal dispersion, which led to the introduction of graded index fibers while the concept of single mode transmission required small cores which could retain stepped index structure. Both of these solutions were beyond the capability of the rod-in-tube and double crucible methods of preform production. Although the optical performance of fibers may not be significantly affected by minute variations in core diameter, the performance of that fiber in a system where it must be jointed, connected, launched into and received from, is very dependent upon the tolerances achieved at the fiber production stage. To overcome these process limitations new methods have been developed to manufacture smaller core fibers. The methods are: Vapour deposited silica (VDS) fibers and Outside vapour deposition (OVD)

Fig.2 Double Crucible Preform Manufacture

2.2. Vapour Deposited Silica (VDS) fibers The vast majority of all optical fibers in service throughout the world today have been manufactured by some type of vapour deposition process. There are three primary processes each of which features both advantages and disadvantages. The ready availability of pure synthetic silica at low cost is key to the VDS

production techniques. As already mentioned the refractive index of pure silica is very low, so low in fact that it is difficult to find a stable optical material which has a lower index. This made silica an ideal material for the cladding of fibers but restricted its use as a core compound. In one version of the IVD process a hollow tube as large as 25 mm diameter forms the basis of the preform. This tube is placed on a preform lathe (see Figure 3).The lathe rotates the tube while a burner is allowed to traverse back and forth along the length of the tube. Gases are passed down the tubes which are subsequently oxidized on to the inner surface of the tube by the action of the burner. The continual motion of the burner and the rotation of the tube enable successive layers of oxidation to be built up in a very controlled fashion. To create the required higher value refractive index layer (stepped index) or layers (graded index) the composition of the gases is modified with time. IVD is also referred to as MCVD, modified chemical vapour deposition: another version of IVD, termed PCVD (plasma chemical vapour deposition), uses a microwave cavity to heat the gases within the tube. The gas composition is varied by the addition of dopants such as germanium, the inclusion of which increases the refractive index of the deposited silicagermanium layer. Once the desired profile is produced inside the tube the burner temperature is increased and the tube is collapsed to form a rod some 16 mm in diameter. This highly controllable process can create preforms capable of providing finished optical fiber with extremely good dimensional tolerances for fiber core concentricity and excellent consistency for numerical aperture. The main disadvantage of this method is the limited length of the Preforms produced which is reflected in the quantity of fiber produced from that preform. To overcome this limitation other methods have been developed such as outside vapour deposition (OVD) and vapour axial deposition (VAD) which are capable of producing larger preforms. These methods produce Preforms of equivalent quality but differ in that a continuous process is adopted and dopants are applied externally rather than internally as discussed above. The preforms produce optical fibers of equivalent optical performance; however, their physical compatibility must be assessed, particularly with regard to fusion splicing as a means of connecting the fibers together. Both the OVD and VAD methods of preform production are more complex than the IVD process.

Fig.3 IVD Preform Manufacture 2.3. Outside Vapour Deposition (OVD) A graphite, aluminium or silica seed rod is used (Figure 3.5). Using a burner and a variable gas feed, layers of doped silica are deposited on the external surface of the rod. As with IVD, the dopant content is varied to produce the desired refractive index profile; however, in this process the highest dopant (highest refractive index) layers are deposited first, immediately next to the rod. Once the core profile has been produced, a thin layer of cladding material is added, at which point the original seed rod is removed. The partially completed preform tube is then dehydrated before being returned to the lathe, at which point the final cladding layer is added. A final dehydration process is undertaken to drive out any residual moisture. The tube is then collapsed down to create the final preform. A variation on this technique involves the use of a prefabricated silica tube, which is bonded to the partially formed structure to form the cladding layer prior to collapse.

Fig.4 Outside Vapour Deposition Preform Manufacture 2.4. Vapour axial deposition The VAD method utilizes a more complex process but, as will be seen later, offers some advantages.

Fig.5 VAD seed, burner configuration and growth mechanism Figure 5 shows a glass seed together with the other apparatus necessary to produce a VAD preform. It is established fact that the proportion of dopant oxidized on the surface of the seed is dependent upon the temperature of the burner. Using this fact as a foundation, the VAD process achieves the required refractive index profiles by varying the dopant deposition ratio within the core using differences in burner temperature across the seed face. This is shown in diagrammatic form in Figure 6. As a result the preform can be produced in a continuous length. Once the required length of preform is produced then the element is removed from the fixture and dehydrated prior to the application of a cladding tube as discussed above.

Fig. 6 VAD seed growth and preform manufacture The IVD, OVD and VAD processes all produce fibers with high performance characteristics; however, each method has its advantages and disadvantages. The principal advantage of VAD is the continuous nature of the preform production, which leads to higher yields at the fiber manufacturing stage. This naturally leads to potentially lower unit fiber costs. Nevertheless IVD and OVD processes tend to offer better core concentricity tolerances due to their integrated structure. Fiber Manufacture From Preforms Figure 7 shows a typical arrangement for the drawing of optical fiber from a preform. The preform is heated in a localized manner and the optical fiber is drawn off or pulled by winding the melt on to a wheel. A fiber diameter measuring system is connected directly by servo-controls to the winding wheel. A tendency to produce fiber with cladding diameter larger than specification is met by an increased drawing rate whilst a small fiber measurement serves to reduce the rate of winding. In this way the cladding diameter is controlled within tight tolerances; the limitations being the drawing rate (as high as possible to produce low-cost fibers) balanced by the response of the servo-control mechanism. Obviously the highest grade optical fiber is produced from highest grade preforms. Table 3.1 shows the typical physical and optical tolerances achievable for the professional VDS fiber geometries.

Fig.7 Production of Primary coated optical fiber