Fiber Optics

3D-stamped Ferrolder eliminates epoxy in single-fiber-optic interconnects

May 10, 2017

NanoPrecision Products has developed a fiber-optic interconnect that eliminates the need for epoxy with its 3D stamped design.

Gail Overton

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NanoPrecision Products (El Segundo, CA) has developed a fiber-optic interconnect that eliminates the need for epoxy with its three-dimensional (3D) stamped design. Based on an SC optical fiber connector form factor, the "Ferrolder" is constructed from titanium, with the ferrule and holder in one unit. It is manufactured using a process in which a multilayered, material-formed component aligns and holds optical fibers to nanometer accuracies and tolerances. The 3D stamping process produces a ferrule with openings that are nearly the same diameter as a 125 μm optical fiber, requiring no epoxy. During the production process, two Ferrolder halves encapsulate the cleaved optical fiber within formed, nanoscale-tolerance grooves. The "sandwich" of the two halves holding the fiber is assembled together into a single unit using a laser-welding process that replaces traditional epoxy. Test results show negligible effect on polarization-dependent loss.

Certified by Verizon, the SC Ferrolder-based connector kit is designed and tested to be backward-compatible with existing ceramic-based units in the market. The environmental performance of the kit exceeds that of single-mode ceramic-epoxy-based connectors. That is, insertion loss changes over the entire environmental test are <0.05–0.25 dB smaller than conventional single-fiber connectors. Permanent fiber height change after the environmental test is <5 nm compared to traditional single-fiber connectors, with typical height changes of 50 to 200 nm. Reference: https://goo.gl/VadNtz.

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.