ORTE独特的涂覆层剥离控制技术

作者：

奥鑫通讯

浏览次数：

时间：

2022-05-20

光纤通常由纤芯、包层以及涂覆层三部分组成，如图1所示。

纤芯完成光信号的传输，包层与纤芯的折射率不同，可以将光信号封闭在纤芯中传输并起到保护纤芯的作用，涂覆层的主要作用是保护光纤不受外界的损伤，同时又增加光纤的柔韧性。因为纤芯和包层都属于玻璃材质，弯曲易碎，涂覆层的使用则起到保护并延长光纤寿命的作用。

图1 光纤结构

光纤耦合器典型的失效模式之一，是光纤包层表面的微裂纹（如图2）在水汽的侵蚀下不断“生长”，导致耦合区光纤断裂从而失效，如图3所示。

图2 光纤微裂纹

图3 裂纹“生长”导致耦合区断裂

采用熔融拉锥工艺进行制作光纤耦合器时，需要将光纤表面的涂覆层剥离并清洁干净，想要制作出高性能的光纤耦合器，就必须确保剥离涂覆层时不会对包层表面造成 “伤害”。表1介绍了目前两种剥离涂覆层的技术，分别为米勒钳、ORTE剥纤钳。

采用ORTE剥纤钳剥离涂覆层，光纤强度要明显优于采用米勒钳，拥有自主知识产权的ORTE剥纤钳可有效减少光纤表面微裂纹的产生，剥纤一致性好，无损的涂覆层剥离技术，是高性能光纤耦合器制作的关键工艺技术基础。

Conventional fiber is composed of three parts: core, cladding and coating. As shown in the picture, the fiber core completes the transmission of the optical signal. The refractive index of the cladding and the core is different, which can enclose the optical signal in the core for transmission and protect the core. The main function of the coating layer is to protect the fiber from the outside world. damage, while increasing the flexibility of the fiber. Because both the core and the cladding are made of glass, which is fragile when bent, the use of the coating layer protects and prolongs the life of the fiber.

When using the fusion taper process to make optical fiber couplers, the coating layer on the surface of the optical fiber needs to be stripped and cleaned. In order to make high-performance optical fiber couplers, it is necessary to ensure that the coating layer is not worn when stripping the coating layer.

One of the typical failure modes of fiber optic couplers is that the micro-cracks on the surface of the fiber cladding continue to "grow" under the erosion of water vapor, resulting in fiber breakage in the coupling area and failure.

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