Furukawa Electric Review No.54Multicore Fiber Manufacturing Technologies Using Modified Cylinder Method

Masanori Takahashi

It is expected that the increase in transmission capacity in optical communication systems using conventional Single-Mode Fibers (SMFs) will reach its limit, and that the early commercialization of Space-Division Multiplexing (SDM) transmission technology using Multicore Fibers (MCFs) is forecasted. In this report, we introduce the research and development trends of MCF manufacturing technology reported so far from the viewpoint of improving the manufacturability for the practical use of MCF. In addition, we report on a new method that we are developing as a new manufacturing method in order to solve the issues (drilling cost, limitation of preform size) in the drilling method, which is currently the most widely used manufacturing method. In principle, the modified cylinder method has the advantages of larger size and lower cost of the preform, and we have fabricated MCFs from the preform by optimizing the design of the modified cylinder method, and have achieved a low attenuation that is comparable to that of the MCF fabricated by the drilling method.