FBER OPTCS History of Fiber Optics

As far back as Roman times, glass has been drawn into fibers. Yet, it was not until the 1790s that the French Chappe brothers invented the first "optical telegraph." It was a system comprised of a series of lights mounted on towers where operators would relay a message from one tower to the next. Over the course of the next century great strides were made in optical science.

John Tyndall, British physicist, demonstrated that light signals could be bent. In the 1840s, physicists Daniel Collodon and Jacques Babinet showed that light could be directed along jets of water for fountain displays. In 1854, John Tyndall, a British physicist, demonstrated that light could travel through a curved stream of water thereby proving that a light signal could be bent. He proved this by setting up a tank of water with a pipe that ran out of one side. As water flowed from the pipe, he shone a light into the tank into the stream of water. As the water fell, an arc of light followed the water down. Alexander Graham Bell patented an optical telephone system called the photophone in 1880. His earlier invention, the telephone, proved to be more realistic however. That same year, William Wheeler invented a system of light pipes lined with a highly reflective coating that illuminated homes by using light from an electric arc lamp placed in the basement and directing the light around the home with the pipes.

Sketch of a telephone system by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell patented an optical telephone system which assisted in the advancement of optical technology. Doctors Roth and Reuss, of Vienna, used bent glass rods to illuminate body cavities in 1888. French engineer Henry Saint-Rene designed a system of bent glass rods for guiding light images seven years later in an early attempt at television. In 1898, American David Smith applied for a patent on a dental illuminator using a curved glass rod. In the 1920s, John Logie Baird patented the idea of using arrays of transparent rods to transmit images for television and Clarence W. Hansell did the same for facsimiles. Heinrich Lamm, however, was the first person to transmit an image through a bundle of optical fibers in 1930. It was an image of a light bulb filament. His intent was to look inside inaccessible parts of the body, but the rise of the Nazis forced Lamm, a Jew, to move to America and abandon his dream of becoming a professor of medicine. His effort to file a patent was denied because of Hansell's British patent. In 1951, Holger Moeller applied for a Danish patent on fiber-optic imaging in which he proposed cladding glass or plastic fibers with a transparent low-index material, but was denied because of Baird and Hansell's patents. Three years later, Abraham Van Heel and Harold H. Hopkins presented imaging bundles in the British journal Nature at separate times. Van Heel later produced a cladded fiber system that greatly reduced signal interference and crosstalk between fibers. Also in 1954, the "maser" was developed by Charles Townes and his colleagues at Columbia University. Maser stands for "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." The laser was introduced in 1958 as a efficient source of light. The concept was introduced by Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow to show that masers could be made to operate in optical and infrared regions. Basically, light is reflected back and forth in an energized medium to generate amplified light as opposed to excited molecules of gas amplified to generate radio waves, as is the case with the maser. Laser stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation."

A helium-neon gas laser (He-Ne) is tested in a laboratory setting. The laser tube is made from lead glass- the same glass used in neon signs. Image courtesy of J&K Lasers. In 1960, the first continuously operating helium-neon gas laser is invented and tested. That same year an operable laser was invented which used a synthetic pink ruby crystal as the medium and produced a pulse of light. In 1961, Elias Snitzer of American Optical published a theoretical description of single mode fibers whose core would be so small it could carry light with only one wave-guide mode. Snitzer was able to demonstrate a laser directed through a thin glass fiber which was sufficient for medical applications, but for communication applications the light loss became too great. Charles Kao and George Hockham, of Standard Communications Laboratories in England, published a paper in 1964 demonstrating, theoretically, that light loss in existing glass fibers could be decreased dramatically by removing impurities. In 1970, the goal of making single mode fibers with attenuation less then 20dB/km was reached by scientists at Corning Glass Works. This was achieved through doping silica glass with titanium. Also in 1970, Morton Panish and Izuo Hayashi of Bell Laboratories, along with a group from the Ioffe Physical Institute in Leningrad, demonstrated a semiconductor diode laser capable of emitting continuous waves at room temperature.

Military scientists have utilized laser technology for variety of military applications. In 1973, Bell Laboratories developed a modified chemical vapor deposition process that heats chemical vapors and oxygen to form ultra-transparent glass that can be massproduced into low-loss optical fiber. This process still remains the standard for fiberoptic cable manufacturing.

The first non-experimental fiber-optic link was installed by the Dorset (UK) police in 1975. Two years later, the first live telephone traffic through fiber optics occurs in Long Beach, California. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, telephone companies began to use fibers extensively to rebuild their communications infrastructure. Sprint was founded on the first nationwide, 100 percent digital, fiber-optic network in the mid-1980s. The erbium-doped fiber amplifier, which reduced the cost of long-distance fiber systems by eliminating the need for optical-electrical-optical repeaters, was invented in 1986 by David Payne of the University of Southampton and Emmanuel Desurvire at Bell Labratories. Based on Desurvire's optimized laser amplification technology, the first transatlantic telephone cable went into operation in 1988. In 1991, Desurvire and Payne demonstrated optical amplifiers that were built into the fiber-optic cable itself. The all-optic system could carry 100 times more information than cable with electronic amplifiers. Also in 1991, photonic crystal fiber was developed. This fiber guides light by means of diffraction from a periodic structure rather then total internal reflection which allows power to be carried more efficiently then with conventional fibers therefore improving performance. The first all-optic fiber cable, TPC-5, that uses optical amplifiers was laid across the Pacific Ocean in 1996. The following year the Fiber Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) became the longest single-cable network in the world and provided the infrastructure for the next generation of Internet applications. Today, a variety of industries including the medical, military, telecommunication, industrial, data storage, networking, and broadcast industries are able to apply and use fiber optic technology in a variety of applications.

Where do we use fiber optics?

You hear about fiber-optic cables whenever people talk about the telephone system, the cable TV system or the Internet. Fiber-optic lines are strands of optically pure glass as thin as a human hair that carry digital information over long distances. They are also used in medical imaging and mechanical engineering inspection.

Parts of a single optical fiber In this article, we will show you how these tiny strands of glass transmit light and the fascinating way that these strands are made.

How Are Fiber Optics Made?

Optical fibers are made of extremely pure optical glass. We think of a glass window as transparent, but the thicker the glass gets, the less transparent it becomes due to impurities in the glass. However, the glass in an optical fiber has far fewer impurities than window-pane glass. One company's description of the quality of glass is as follows: If you were on top of an ocean that is miles of solid core optical fiber glass, you could see the bottom clearly. Making optical fibers requires the following steps:

1. 2. 3.

Making a preform glass cylinder Drawing the fibers from the preform Testing the fibers

Making the Preform Blank The glass for the preform is made by a process called modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD).

Image courtesy Fibercore Ltd.

MCVD process for making the preform blank

In MCVD, oxygen is bubbled through solutions of silicon chloride (SiCl4), germanium chloride (GeCl4) and/or other chemicals. The precise mixture governs the various physical and optical properties (index of refraction, coefficient of expansion, melting point, etc.). The gas vapors are then conducted to the inside of a synthetic silica or quartz tube (cladding) in a special lathe. As the lathe turns, a torch is moved up and down the outside of the tube. The extreme heat from the torch causes two things to happen:

Photo courtesy Fibercore Ltd. Lathe used in preparing the preform blank The silicon and germanium react with oxygen, forming silicon dioxide (SiO2) and germanium dioxide (GeO2). The silicon dioxide and germanium dioxide deposit on the inside of the tube and fuse together to form glass. The lathe turns continuously to make an even coating and consistent blank. The purity of the glass is maintained by using corrosion-resistant plastic in the gas delivery system (valve blocks, pipes, seals) and by precisely controlling the flow and composition of the

mixture. The process of making the preform blank is highly automated and takes several hours. After the preform blank cools, it is tested for quality control (index of refraction). Drawing Fibers from the Preform Blank Once the preform blank has been tested, it gets loaded into a fiber drawing tower.

Diagram of a fiber drawing tower used to draw optical glass fibers from a preform blank The blank gets lowered into a graphite furnace (3,452 to 3,992 degrees Fahrenheit or 1,900 to 2,200 degrees Celsius) and the tip gets melted until a molten glob falls down by gravity. As it drops, it cools and forms a thread.

The operator threads the strand through a series of coating cups (buffer coatings) and ultraviolet light curing ovens onto a tractor-controlled spool. The tractor mechanism slowly pulls the fiber from the heated preform blank and is precisely controlled by using a laser micrometer to measure the diameter of the fiber and feed the information back to the tractor mechanism. Fibers are pulled from the blank at a rate of 33 to 66

ft/s (10 to 20 m/s) and the finished product is wound onto the spool. It is not uncommon for spools to contain more than 1.4 miles (2.2 km) of optical fiber. Testing the Finished Optical Fiber The finished optical fiber is tested for the following: Tensile strength - Must withstand 100,000 lb/in2 or more Refractive index profile - Determine numerical aperture as well as screen for optical defects

Photo courtesy Corning Finished spool of optical fiber Fiber geometry - Core diameter, cladding dimensions and coating diameter are uniform Attenuation - Determine the extent that light signals of various wavelengths degrade over distance Information carrying capacity (bandwidth) - Number of signals that can be carried at one time (multi-mode fibers) Chromatic dispersion - Spread of various wavelengths of light through the core (important for bandwidth) Operating temperature/humidity range Temperature dependence of attenuation Ability to conduct light underwater - Important for undersea cables Once the fibers have passed the quality control, they are sold to telephone companies, cable companies and network providers. Many companies are currently replacing their old copper-wire-based systems with new fiber-optic-based systems to improve speed, capacity and clarity.

Why do the fiber optics are better than the other metals?
Why are fiber-optic systems revolutionizing telecommunications? Compared to conventional metal wire (copper wire), optical fibers are: Less expensive - Several miles of optical cable can be made cheaper than equivalent lengths of copper wire. This saves your provider (cable TV, Internet) and you money. Thinner - Optical fibers can be drawn to smaller diameters than copper wire. Higher carrying capacity - Because optical fibers are thinner than copper wires, more fibers can be bundled into a given-diameter cable than copper wires. This allows more phone lines to go over the same cable or more channels to come through the cable into your cable TV box. Less signal degradation - The loss of signal in optical fiber is less than in copper wire. Light signals - Unlike electrical signals in copper wires, light signals from one fiber do not interfere with those of other fibers in the same cable. This means clearer phone conversations or TV reception. Low power - Because signals in optical fibers degrade less, lower-power transmitters can be used instead of the high-voltage electrical transmitters needed for copper wires. Again, this saves your provider and you money. Digital signals - Optical fibers are ideally suited for carrying digital information, which is especially useful in computer networks. Non-flammable - Because no electricity is passed through optical fibers, there is no fire hazard. Lightweight - An optical cable weighs less than a comparable copper wire cable. Fiber-optic cables take up less space in the ground. Flexible - Because fiber optics are so flexible and can transmit and receive light, they are used in many flexible digital cameras for the following purposes: Medical imaging - in bronchoscopes, endoscopes, laparoscopes Mechanical imaging - inspecting mechanical welds in pipes and engines (in airplanes, rockets, space shuttles, cars) Plumbing - to inspect sewer lines Because of these advantages, you see fiber optics in many industries, most notably telecommunications and computer networks. For example, if you telephone Europe from the United States (or vice versa) and the signal is bounced off a communications satellite, you often hear an echo on the line. But with transatlantic fiber-optic cables, you have a direct connection with no echoes.

Fiber Optics in Turkey

Hesfibel was established in Kayseri, Turkey in 1990 with the goal of producing fiber optic cable. This investment was undertaken upon the urging and with the support of the then-president of Turkey, entirely with Turkish capital. The capitalization was completed very quickly and production commenced, thus leading Hesfibel, almost immediately, to a market leadership position in the production of fiber optic cables. Since its founding, Hesfibel has continued its growth trend and has produced many technological innovations. This growth is due to its operational policy based on prudent investments, and the importance it gives to R & D. Hesfibel is sound and secure because it is based on the highest technology systems. Hesfibel enjoys an ever increasing market share with a growing base and works to develop lasting relationship with new customers. Hesfibel's fiber optic cables have been installed in projects around the world and we will continue to strive to be involved in high value projects everywhere. Our investments in leading-edge technology, combined with the superior performance of our products, will enable us to keep increasing our share in world markets. In 1991 Hesfibel delivered its first order of fiber optic cables to Turkish Telecom and the company soon gained many other customers as well, rising quickly to a leadership position in Turkey's fiber optic cable market. Entering foreign markets was one of Hesfibel's primary targets from its founding. In 1993 Hesfibel participated in the Telecom Malaysia contractual bid inconjunction with the Marconi Italy. Upon winning the sixty million USD contract, Hesfibel took its first step into world markets. This constituted an important stride for Hesfibel, with increasing production capacities and in its recognition on world market. As we also provided engineering support services to the Malaysian contract, this became our first foreign-based endeavor. Since then Hesfibel has completed large-scale projects, both at home and abroad. Some of its major projects abroad are as follows: In 1999, we started exporting fiber and fiber optic cables to the USA, the home of fiber. We participated in TAE (Trans-Asia-Europe) 20.000 km fiber optic link. Hesfibels part was substantial with almost 20% of the total project. We provided Telemar, Brazils largest telecommunications company its copper wire requirements and have also delivered them more than 3000 kilometers of fiber optic cable. Hesfibel is one of the major supplier of fiber optic cables to Near and Middle East market and North Africa. In 1998, we began production, laying and maintaining submarine cables and submarine joint boxes. From its 90.000 square meters plant, Hesfibel the regions unrivalled leader, provides its domestic and foreign market customers with full range of services, including fiber optic cable route survey, design, installation, commissioning services and underwater cable operations with cable laying, jointing and testing. Hesfibel can also supply turn-key cable and fiber production plants and technology

FBER OPTCS
YAMAN KSEOLU ENG1003 GZEM TAYLANER 0714703