18 Enabling the Digital and Energy transition REDUCED-DIAMETER, HIGH-DENSITY RESEARCH yields 180μm-coated bend-insensitive fibre In a new report, Prysmian documents the design and fabrication of a 180μm-coated bend-insensitive fibre with standard 125μm cladding. WAYS TO INCREASE CABLE DENSITY WITH FIBRES: \ Space-division-multiplexed fibres with standard 125μm cladding diameter. However, there are cost and connectivity challenges ahead before these solutions become practical. \ Reducing the cladding diameter to 80μm with coating diameters around 160μm. These fibres suffer from increased micro-bending sensitivity (factor of ~10 compared to standard 125μm-cladding fibres with same other properties) and still face connectivity and handling challenges. \ Keeping a standard 125μm cladding diameter and reducing the standard 245μm coating diameter. There have been impressive cable demonstrations fitting 6,912 fibres into a 50mm duct, using 200μm coated fibres introduced over a decade ago. Preliminary studies of <200μm coated fibres have been reported but work on index-profile designs and coating materials is needed to make them suitable for cabling. Prysmian designed and manufactured an optimized fibre with 180μm coating diameter using this third approach. A trench-assisted step-index profile, that had long proven effective in reducing bending sensitivities, was chosen. Prysmian’s innovation has excellent optical and mechanical properties and is fully compatible with legacy 245μm- and 200μm-coated fibres. A 576-fibre micro-duct cable with an 8.2mm diameter, yielding a record fibre density of 10.9fiber/mm² for such cables, was also fabricated. High-density cables can help meet capacity demands and make installations faster, more cost effective and environmentally friendly.
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