Rugged and Durable Fiber Optic Replacement

Hybrid Glass Technologies, Inc. (HGT) proposes to design and develop a rugged and durable drop-in fiber replacement that would provide a versatile platform for a number of photonic network-centric military avionic network applications. The key improvement over the currently used technology will be provided by the fiber coating material called hybrid glass that meets the military adverse environmental conditions. Specifically the hybrid glass coating will provide the fibers with enhanced bending strength, robustness, high temperature and environmental durability. Additional benefits include small fiber diameter, minimal bend radius, and ease of termination. The hybrid glass coating has already proven to provide the fiber with higher strength characteristics and the resistance to breaks during bending and handling therefore will require less cable protection than the current silica-based fiber optic material. The hybrid glass coating will be applied on 50 micron core graded index multimode fiber and 9 micron mode field diameter bend-insensitive single-mode fibers to provide -55 to +165 ºC operation over a 100 meter transmission distance. In addition, we propose to develop a strippable coating and to design a drop-in cable plant replacement incorporating hybrid glass coated fibers into improved cable, fiber ribbon using epoxy-free connectors.