Optical fiber with resilient jacket

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9244237-B2
Application number	US-201313749906-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2013
Priority date	Feb 6, 2012
Publication date	Jan 26, 2016
Grant date	Jan 26, 2016

Abstract

An optical fiber with a resilient jacket is disclosed. The optical fiber includes a cushion layer overlying the optical fiber in which the cushion layer is formed from a plurality of cushion members. The cushion members can be tubes that are hollow or that are partially or completely filled with a soft thermoplastic material. A polymeric sleeve overlies the cushion layer.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A jacketed optical fiber comprising:
an optical fiber;
a cushion layer overlying the optical fiber, the cushion layer comprising a plurality of elongate tube cushion members; and
a polymeric sleeve overlying the cushion layer;
wherein each of the elongate tube cushion members includes a separate wall portion defining an inner diameter and an outer diameter, the outer diameter of each of the elongate tube cushion members being smaller than a diameter of the optical fiber; wherein the polymeric sleeve comprises a polymeric material having a tensile strength greater than 4000 psi.

2. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the tube cushion members are helically wrapped about the optical fiber.

3. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the cushion members is hollow.

4. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the cushion members is at least partially filled with a fluorinated polymer.

5. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 1 further comprising a buffer layer intermediate the optical fiber and the cushion layer.

6. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 1 further comprising an adhesive layer intermediate the cushion layer and the polymeric sleeve.

7. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 1 further comprising a fluoropolymer layer overlying the polymeric sleeve.

8. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the optical fiber is a plastic optical fiber.

9. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 8 , wherein the plastic optical fiber comprises poly(methyl) methacrylate.

10. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the cushion layer comprises a polyaryl ether.

11. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 10 , wherein the polyaryl ether comprises polyetheretherketone.

12. The jacketed optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the cushion layer comprises a material selected from the group consisting of polyethersulfone, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene, polysulfone, polyethyleneimide, and copolymers thereof.

Assignees

• Tyco Electronics Corp

Inventors

• Mehan Ashok K

Classifications

• G02B6/4486

  Protective covering · CPC title

• G02B6/443

  Protective covering · CPC title

• G02B6/4401 Primary

  Optical cables (glass fibres with a protective coating G02B6/02395) · CPC title

• G02B6/4402 Primary

  with one single optical waveguide (G02B6/4429, G02B6/4439, G02B6/4479 take precedence) · CPC title