Optical Fibers

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Optical Fibers

• Jonathan Perez
• MEEN 3344

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What are Optical Fibers?

• Long thin strands of very pure glass about the
  diameter of a human hair.
• They are arranged in bundles called optical
  cables and used to carry digital information over
  long distances.
• Used heavily in telecommunications and computer
  networks
• Also used in medical imaging and mechanical
  engineering inspection

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How are they made?

• Three step process
• Step 1 Make a pre-form glass cylinder

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How are they made?

• Step 2 Draw the fibers from the pre-form glass
  cylinder
• Step 3 Test the finished optical fibers

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Advantages of optical fibers(over metal wires)

• Less Expensive
• Thinner
• Higher Carrying Capacity
• Less Signal Degradation
• Light Signals
• Low Power
• Digital Signals
• Non Flammable
• Lightweight
• Flexible

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Other and Future Uses

• Illumination light can be carried from outside
  to rooms in the interiors of buildings
• Sensors able to measure data at different points
  along the fiber
• Laser beams provides a flexible and safe means
  of distributing high power laser radiation around
  a factory to be used by robots or machine tools
• Optical Computing uses light instead of
  electrons to process information. Optical
  computers could transport information ten times
  faster than today's electronic devices

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References

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_Fiber
• http//electronics.howstuffworks.com/fiber-optic4.
  htm
• http//www.commspecial.com/fiberguide.htm
• http//www.physorg.com/news3679.html
• http//library.thinkquest.org/C006694F/Optical20F
  ibres/Uses201.htm