A Novel Method for Fabricating Ultra Low-Cost Radial Gradient-Index Glass Rods for Optic Communication Networks

This SBIR Phase II project proposed to develop a new fabrication technology that would lead to ultra low-cost, high quality radial gradient refractive index (GRIN) rods, which are widely used in fiber optic communications. Drastic cost reduction isexpected because several cost and labor intensive manufacturing processes will be eliminated, the product yield will be increased significantly compared to current existing technologies. The estimated price for our new product is less than 20% of currentprice. The major part of the cost reduction results from the extremely high productivity. More than ten thousands radial GRIN rods could be fabricated from one preform with a diameter of 5cm and a length of 150 cm. Importantly, this new fabricationtechnology also provides excellent reproducibility and an extremely high degree of flexibility in fabricating new types of radial GRIN rods. This technology could have an enormous impact in both military and civilian-oriented optical communications,signal processing and medical imaging applications. These low-cost radial GRIN rods will significantly expedite the realization of all optic communication networks for military and Fiber-To-The Home (FTTH). This proposed radial gradient refractive indexglass rods can be used in the rapidly growing market of civil and military communication networks, sensor networks, computer data links, document reproduction, as well as medical imaging.