Dr. Toshiaki Satake, Chief Scientist at US Conec Ltd. in North Carolina, was recently given a special Achievement Award and cash prize for “Development of Optical Fiber Connection Technology” by the Japan IEICE organization for Dr. Satake’s work developing MT multi-fiber connection technology.
The basic MT ferrule design and selection of material for molding the ferrule and process for terminating fiber ribbon was completed by Dr. Satake at NTT Laboratory in the 1980s. Widespread use followed in the NTT network which proved the low loss, long term reliability, and economical method for ribbon connections.
In 1992 Dr. Satake was a founding member of US Conec Ltd., an equity venture in Hickory, NC. At US Conec Dr. Satake introduced the MPO style dry mating connector with MT ferrule which became very popular in the U.S. for connections in large scale digital switch/router systems and for data center cabling.
Dr. Satake presented the merits of MPO connectors, capable of connecting up to 80 fibers, at many standards meetings including at TIA, ANSI, IEEE, and IEC, all of which adopted standards based on the MT technology. More recently MT style connectors are used in FTTx networks and supercomputer backplanes.
Bill Blubaugh, President of US Conec, remarked, "Dr. Satake has had a large impact on the optical connector industry and the success of US Conec, enabling several key applications with high density, reliable, and cost effective solutions. He has tirelessly shared his knowledge to gain acceptance for one application after another for over 25 years. Everyone at US Conec is proud of his receiving this IEICE award and prize for this accomplishment."