Description
Cleaving should be a secondary process when working with optical fibers, but for polymer optical fibers it can be time consuming and can affect the quality of the measurements due to coupling losses that could be avoided with an automatic and repeatable cleaving process. We built an automatic cleaver and studied the parameters affecting the quality of the cleaves in order to optimize this process and be able to repeat the same result at each cleave. The parameters that affect an mPOF cleaving are: the knife temperature, the base temperature, the blade speed, and the blade itself. We have investigated this parameters for two different materials: PMMA and Topas. The range of parameters that have been investigated are: temperatures for both the blade and the base from 30 to 90°C, blade speeds from 1 mm/s to 9 mm/s and a various range of blades with different thickness and coating materials. For PMMA the best cleaving parameters have been found to be: 80°C for both the blade and the base, 5.6 mm/s cleaving speed and thickness of the blade less than 0.20 mm. For Topas the best cleaving parameters have been found to be: 40°C for both the blade and the base, 5.6 mm/s cleaving speed and thickness of the blade less than 0.20 mm.Place: Lanarca, Cyprus
| Period | 2 Apr 2009 → 4 Apr 2009 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Unknown |