TY - JOUR

T1 - Dip coating of thin polymer optical fibers

AU - Evertz, Andreas

AU - Schrein, Daniel

AU - Olsen, Ejvind

AU - Hoffmann, Gerd Albert

AU - Overmeyer, Ludger

N1 - Funding Information: This study was conducted within the LAPOF project. This work was supported by the Europäischer Fond für Regionale Entwicklung (EFRE) and the state Niedersachsen-Regionenkategorie Stärker Entwickelte Regionen (SER) under project number 85003655. The authors would like to thank Evonik Performance Materials GmbH for supplying the PMMA for the fiber cores, and Farbwerke Herkula SA/AG for supplying the coating material used in testing and optimizing the dip-coating system.

PY - 2021/10

Y1 - 2021/10

N2 - To produce polymer optical fibers in research environments, a flexible cladding material-application process is required. Further, to functionalize the waveguide, the fiber core-production step needs to be separated from the cladding application, contrasting conventional polymer optical fiber production processes. In this study, we developed a solution using continuous dip-coating technique to apply cladding material onto previously extruded polymer optical fiber cores with diameters as low as 16 µm. The process was designed considering the fluid-dynamic behavior of the cladding material and fiber to achieve a radially symmetric coating thickness. We examined UV-curable resin as cladding and polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA)-based extruded optical fibers with diameters of up to 16 µm. The proposed method helped continuously coat optical fiber cores with cladding material with diameters in the range of 1 mm and achieve the lowest optical attenuation (<3 dB/m).

AB - To produce polymer optical fibers in research environments, a flexible cladding material-application process is required. Further, to functionalize the waveguide, the fiber core-production step needs to be separated from the cladding application, contrasting conventional polymer optical fiber production processes. In this study, we developed a solution using continuous dip-coating technique to apply cladding material onto previously extruded polymer optical fiber cores with diameters as low as 16 µm. The process was designed considering the fluid-dynamic behavior of the cladding material and fiber to achieve a radially symmetric coating thickness. We examined UV-curable resin as cladding and polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA)-based extruded optical fibers with diameters of up to 16 µm. The proposed method helped continuously coat optical fiber cores with cladding material with diameters in the range of 1 mm and achieve the lowest optical attenuation (<3 dB/m).

KW - Continuous dip coating

KW - Extruded optical fibers

KW - Polymer optical fiber

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110085329&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.yofte.2021.102638

DO - 10.1016/j.yofte.2021.102638

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85110085329

VL - 66

JO - Optical fiber technology

JF - Optical fiber technology

SN - 1068-5200

M1 - 102638

ER -