SBIR Phase II: Extrusion Manufacturing Process for Ultrahigh Bandwidth, Low Attenuation Graded-Index Polymer Optical Fibers

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will advance the technology for reliably manufacturing low attenuation, ultrahigh bandwidth, graded-index, perfluorinated polymer optical fibers (GI-POF) by a low cost continuous extrusion process. Currently there is an unmet need for an easy-to-use, rugged medium that allows the migration of data communications to speeds of 10 Gigabits per second, and beyond, in rapidly growing applications such as data centers, supercomputing and consumer electronics. This project will result in a production quality process for manufacturing plastic fibers having bandwidth equal to the best multimode glass fibers, but with a simple plug-and-clamp installation process, and tolerance of bend radii fivefold tighter than that allowed by glass fibers. The project will address three areas to develop the technology into commercially viable products: 1) Advanced extrusion process development to greatly improve fiber bandwidth distribution and attenuation, while doubling production speed; 2) Investigation to prove-in new polymers that can increase the fiber operating temperature up to 85 deg C; 3) Investigation and development of a unique, readily manufactured multi-core fiber design that can offer customers almost unlimited bandwidth, as well as greatly improved attenuation in tight bends. If successful the production technologies developed in this project will result in the possible recapturing of American leadership in POF manufacturing while stimulating American-based production of the manufacturing capital equipment used in this industry. Similarly, American companies using POF to develop next-generation short-distance communication systems will also benefit, as they will enjoy better access to information and custom products based on GI-POF. The results of this project will help improve the ecosystem for many areas of datacom manufacturing in the US. Also, by enabling a product that makes installation of high-bandwidth cabling much simpler and less expensive, the Phase II project will be of considerable benefit to schools, hospitals, and other institutions which have many needs for high-bandwidth communication, but often do not have large budgets to support such systems. The scientific benefits of the Phase II project are likely to be the simplified and lower-cost construction of massively parallel computing facilities, and increased commercial interest in chemical synthesis techniques for amorphous fluoropolymers and their precursor chemicals.