Multi-optical fiber aggregate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9835812-B2
Application number	US-201615227373-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2016
Priority date	Aug 4, 2015
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

A multi-fiber aggregate is provided. The multi-fiber aggregate includes at least two optical fibers, each of the at least two optical fibers having a core member formed from a silica-based glass and an outer cladding layer formed from a silica-based glass surrounding and in direct contact with the core member. The multi-fiber aggregate also includes a polymeric binding coating surrounding the at least two optical fibers and holding the at least two fibers in a predetermined geometry.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A multi-optical fiber aggregate comprising:
at least two optical fibers, each of the at least two optical fibers having a core region formed from a silica-based glass having an index of refraction n 1 , and an outer cladding layer formed from a silica-based glass surrounding and in direct contact with the core region; and
a polymeric binding coating surrounding and in direct contact with the outer cladding layer of each of the at least two optical fibers and holding the at least two fibers in a predetermined geometry,
wherein the outer cladding layer comprises a reduced refractive index region having an index of refraction n 4 and an outer cladding region having an index of refraction n 2 , and
wherein n 4 <n 2 <n 1 .

2. The multi-fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein the at least two optical fibers have a diameter of less than about 125 microns.

3. The multi-fiber aggregate of claim 2 , wherein the at least two optical fibers have a diameter of between about 40 microns and about 120 microns.

4. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein the outer cladding layer further comprises an inner cladding region surrounding the core region, wherein the reduced refractive index region surrounds the inner cladding region.

5. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein the reduced refractive index region comprises silica-based glass doped with fluorine.

6. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein the at least two optical fibers comprise a substantially circular shape.

7. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the at least two optical fibers is substantially flat.

8. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the at least two optical fibers comprises a multicore fiber.

9. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the at least two optical fibers comprises an elliptical core region.

10. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the at least two optical fibers comprises at least two stress rods surrounding the core region.

11. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein a portion of the at least two optical fibers physically contacts a portion of at least one adjacent optical fiber.

12. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 , wherein a portion of the at least two optical fibers is less than about 15 microns from a portion of at least one adjacent optical fiber.

13. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 1 comprising at least two sets of at least two optical fibers, wherein optical fibers of adjacent sets are oriented in different parallel planes in a first dimension, and wherein the optical fibers are oriented such that optical fibers of adjacent sets are not bisected by the same plane in a second dimension, wherein the first dimension is perpendicular to the second dimension.

14. The multi-optical fiber aggregate of claim 7 , wherein the substantially flat portion of a first of the at least two optical fibers physically contacts the substantially flat portion of at least one other of the at least two optical fibers.

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Yadlowsky Michael John

Classifications

• G02B6/02395

  Glass optical fibre with a protective coating, e.g. two layer polymer coating deposited directly on a silica cladding surface during fibre manufacture (G02B6/02052, G02B6/02057, G02B6/024, G02B6/032, G02B6/105, G02B6/14 take precedence; coating on fibre gratings G02B6/02104; multilayer core or cladding G02B6/036; reinforcing splice joints G02B6/2558; optical cables, i.e. comprising protective structures external to the protective coating such as a jacket or plural coated optical fibres G02B6/44; coating of glass to obtain optical fibres C03C25/104) · CPC title

• G02B6/02042

  Multicore optical fibres · CPC title

• G02B6/4403 Primary

  with ribbon structure (G02B6/4429, G02B6/4439, G02B6/4479 take precedence) · CPC title

• G02B6/06

  the relative position of the fibres being the same at both ends, e.g. for transporting images · CPC title

• G02B6/0365

  arranged - - + · CPC title