Optical fibers fusion splicing

Optical fibers must often be joined, either permanently or temporarily, with minimal coupling loss and back-reflectiom Depending on the performance required, one of three methods are commonly employed to join optical fibers (1) fusion splicing, (2) mechanical splicing, or (3) butt-couphng mechanically aligned fibers terminated with cormectors. The flber ends to be joined must be clean, accurately aligned, and cleaved or polished, so the fiber end-faces are flat and parallel to each other. 

Insertion loss The measured loss in optical power resulting from the scattering of fight at the physical boundary between two optical waveguides (e.g., fibers). The fight scattering is caused by the localized disruption in the refractive properties of the optical path due to the insertion of discrete components such as connectors, mechanical splices, couplers, etc. For fusion splices, this loss is typically referred to as splice loss. ... 

To terminate optical cable in the field, a fiber optic pigtail may be used. A pigtail is typically a single-or multi-fiber cable that has been connectorized at the factory on one end only. The other end remains nonterminated and is spliced to the installed cable. This joint can be either a fusion splice or a mechanical splice. After splicing, the splice point is placed inside a protective splice tray, which is then housed in fiber... 

An even more advanced method of field termination utilizes no-epoxy, no-poKsh connectors. An optical fiber stub is cured into place in the fiber ferrule and polished at the factory. The field fiber is matched up to the fiber stub and a mechanical or fusion splice is made as appropriate inside the connector body. These connectors are typically very quick to install and require few consumables. Although single- and dual-fiber no-epoxy, no-polish connectors are the most common types used, twelve-fiber mechanical splice connectors are also available for use on ribbons. 

Splicing is the joining of two separate fibers to create a continuous length of fiber. The fibers are aligned by one of several methods and then joined together physically and optically by one of two basic categories of splicing, mechanical or fusion. 

---