Splicing is one of the important factors in a fiber
optical system. The information given in the web page is not broad enough
to assist technical and business people in their search for additional
information. It appears that the information on splicing was focused
only on single mode fibres. But there are actually a variety of splicing
techniques that exist according to the book "Fibre Optic component design
fabrication testing, Operation, Reliability and Maintainability".
The some of the splicing methods this web page lacks are Elastomeric Splice,
Rotary Splice, Silicon Chip array Splice and Rapid Ribbon Splice.
People who surf to find out about these splicing techniques will consider
this as a priliminary Web Page, because of the limited factors in the site.
The factors that are important to those people are Splice Test, Splice
Failures and Splice Critical Design Criteria.
Splice Tests:
Fibre splices are affected by environment and mechanical
conditions. This might increase the fibres optical loss. So
environmental tests are performed on the splices by their manufacturer.
Commonly the attenuation of a completed splice is measured before and after
the environmental testing is performed and a comparison between those two
readings are made. The difference is taken as a measure of the splice
sensitivity to the test condition and the prediction of its performance
in the field. The common tests done in the optical splices are:
Insertion Loss, Salt Spray, Fluid Immersion, Impact, Operating Temperature,
Thermal shock, Humidity, Temperature Life, Tensile Loading, Mechanical
Shock, Vibration and Temperature Cycling.
Splice Failures:-
Failure is a huge problem in fibre splicing, this
is barely talked about in the site. Failure mechanisms may cause
long term effect in splices, that includes the breakdown of the index matching
fluid, separation of the fiber endface and the index matching fluid and
fibre movement in the lateral and axial directions.
The information given about the index-matching epoxy
in V-Block, Precision Sleeve and the 3-Rods splicing, are superficial.
They barely mention the environment factors involved due to the exposure
of epoxy in the work space. Mainly the breakdown of the index
matching fluid is induced by exposing the joint in cold and hot temperatures.
Some materials become stiff in cold temperature or become thin in hot temperature.
Other things that are most likely to cause the failure mechanisms are:
Bad Cleaves, Fibre breakage, Fibre endface separation due to improper assembly,
Dirt, Vibration and Improper assembly techniques.
Splice Critical Design Criteria:-
Splice Type
|
Typical Loss(dB)
Multi Mode
|
Typical Loss(dB)
Single Mode
|
Operating Temperature(oC)
|
Average Assembly Time (min)
|
Hollow Tube |
0.2
|
0.2
|
-40 to +70
|
5 - 7
|
Three Rod |
0.2
|
0.2
|
-40 to +70
|
5
|
Rotary |
0.035
|
0.035
|
-40 to +70
|
10 - 19
|
Elastomeric |
0.2
|
0.2
|
-40 to +70
|
3 - 5
|
Silicon Chip Array |
0.15
|
0.3
|
-40 to +70
|
10
|
Rapid Ribbon |
0.25
|
0.3
|
-40 to +70
|
20 - 30
|
Fusion Splice |
0.1
|
0.1
|
Limited by fibre
|
5 - 40
|
The above table is a list of design characteristics which should be
considered before using any of the splices. The data in the table
contains typical values taken from a manufacturer's data sheets.
The actual time required to complete the splice is a very important factor
which may attract the business people. For an additional business
information they could have mentioned about the storage methods and the
cleavering tolerance.