optical fiber is a thin, cylindrical fiber made of glass or plastic, as tiny as one tenth of the human hair. A typical optical fiber for telecom is composed of three layers that are counted in the inside as fiber core (diameter 810um) and Www.yourlunghealth.com/__media__/js/netsoltrademark.php?d=2u4c.com%2Fsite-14973.html cladding (diameter of 125um) as well as buffer layer (diameter 900um).
Fiber core and cladding are made of glass or silica. The fiber core and the cladding layers are used to keep the light inside the core, without leakage. Fiber buffer coating is made out of plastic or acrylic, and provides handling flexibility and physical protection to the fiber.
Fiber optics employ an optical phenomenon known as internal reflection. When light is introduced into the fiber from its end face, it is contained within the core, not leaking out and wasting its energy.
Then, light is digitally modulated to represent 1 and 0 , just like a computer, so information can be transferred from one location to another, which could be located from San Francisco all the way to New York.
What are fiber optic connectors and how do they work?
You now know how optical fibers operate. So what is the fiber optic connector? And what’s its function in the fiber optic telecommunications network?
In simple terms A fiber optic connector’s purpose is similar to that of an electric power plug that relies on light to transmit from one segment of optical fiber with a different section of optical fiber.
Since optical fibers are so tiny, fiber optic connectors have to be constructed with high precision, at the size to 0.1um that is just one centimeter of a human hair.
Fiber optic connectors align two fibers end to end in a way that light can be transferred from one fiber to another without bounce off the interface and loss its signal.
Besides, fiber optic connectors provide cross connect flexibility for the telecommunication network. Thus, a complex computer network could be made modular and simple to manage.
Like other connectors used in electric industry, electronic industry and computer industry, numerous kinds of fiber optic connectors were developed along the development of fiber optic communication. Certain types were once extremely popular in the field and now have served their purposes and are becoming obsolete.
The most popular fiber optic connectors used nowadays are SC, ST, LC, FC, MTRJ, SMA and a few others that are less well-known. There are certain to be new connectors developed with the development of the industry.