OFS today announced it has improved important geometry specifications for its series of LaserWave multimode fibers, including the LaserWave WideBand (OM5), LaserWave FLEX 550 (OM4) and LaserWave FLEX 300 (OM3) fibers.
The manufacturer says the new, tighter specifications can reduce connector loss and improve link system performance in cabled fiber for demanding data center and enterprise applications. The company contends the enhancements can provide extra margin, or "headroom," in today's high speed 40, 100 and 400 Gb/s applications, enabling greater network design flexibility and reliability.
After leading the industry in tightening geometry and attenuation specifications in 2013, OFS says it has further improved the following key geometry specifications in its LaserWave multimode fibers: Clad diameter tolerance has been tightened from 125.0 ± 0.8 μm to 125.0 ± 0.7 μm, while core non-circularity has been improved from ≤5.0% to ≤2.5%.
Combined with a core/clad concentricity that has been tightened from ≤1.0 μm to ≤0.7 μm, the company says these improved specifications allow for better core-to-core alignment and light-coupling efficiency in connectors and splices, thereby helping to reduce insertion loss at these connections.
Modeling of simulated connections conducted by OFS indicates that the tighter specifications can result in average insertion loss improvement of 0.07 dB per connection compared to industry standard fiber.
The model distribution also shows that 97% of insertion losses would be below 0.25 dB using LaserWave fiber, but 0.40dB using standards compliant fiber. As loss budgets drop below 2 dB for 40, 100, and 400 Gb/s network, this improved insertion loss performance is critical for links containing multiple connections, notes the manufacturer.
OFS explains it is able to realize these improvements in fiber geometry through the use of its patented Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD) fiber manufacturing process. This process is billed as "optimally suited for creating the precision refractive index profiles required for today's high-performance laser-optimized multimode fiber."
Headquartered in Norcross, Georgia near Atlanta and part of Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd, a multi-billion dollar leader in optical communications, OFS is a global manufacturer and supplier of optical fiber, fiber optic cable, connectivity, fiber-to-the-subscriber (FTTx), and specialty fiber optic products with facilities in China, Denmark, Germany, Morocco, Russia, and the United States.
For more information, visit www.ofsoptics.com.