SBIR Phase II: Extrusion Manufacturing Process for Ultrahigh Bandwidth, Low Attenuation Graded-Index Polymer Optical Fibers

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将通过低成本连续挤出工艺，推进可靠制造低衰减、高带宽、渐变折射率、全氟聚合物光纤（GI-POF）的技术。目前，在诸如数据中心、超级计算和消费电子产品的快速增长的应用中，存在对允许将数据通信迁移到每秒10兆比特的速度以及更高速度的易于使用的坚固介质的未满足的需求。该项目将产生一种用于制造塑料光纤的生产质量工艺，其带宽等于最好的多模玻璃光纤，但具有简单的“插入和夹紧”安装工艺，并且弯曲半径的公差比玻璃光纤所允许的公差小五倍。该项目将解决三个领域的技术开发成商业上可行的产品：1）先进的挤出工艺开发，大大改善光纤带宽分布和衰减，同时使生产速度翻一番; 2）研究证明新的聚合物可以将光纤工作温度提高到85摄氏度; 3）研究和开发一种独特的、易于制造的多芯光纤设计，可以为客户提供几乎无限的带宽，如果成功的话，该项目开发的生产技术将有可能重新夺回美国在塑料光纤制造方面的领导地位，刺激美国生产的制造资本设备用于该行业。同样，使用POF开发下一代短距离通信系统的美国公司也将受益，因为他们将更好地获得基于GI-POF的信息和定制产品。该项目的成果将有助于改善美国许多领域的电子产品制造的“生态系统”。此外，通过使高带宽电缆的安装更加简单和便宜，第二阶段项目将为学校，医院和其他机构带来相当大的好处，这些机构对高带宽通信有许多需求，但通常没有大量预算来支持这些系统。第二阶段项目的科学效益可能是大规模并行计算设施的简化和低成本建设，以及对无定形含氟聚合物及其前体化学品的化学合成技术的商业兴趣增加。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will advance the technology for reliably manufacturing low attenuation, ultrahigh bandwidth, graded-index, perfluorinated polymer optical fibers (GI-POF) by a low cost continuous extrusion process. Currently there is an unmet need for an easy-to-use, rugged medium that allows the migration of data communications to speeds of 10 Gigabits per second, and beyond, in rapidly growing applications such as data centers, supercomputing and consumer electronics. This project will result in a production quality process for manufacturing plastic fibers having bandwidth equal to the best multimode glass fibers, but with a simple "plug-and-clamp" installation process, and tolerance of bend radii fivefold tighter than that allowed by glass fibers. The project will address three areas to develop the technology into commercially viable products: 1) Advanced extrusion process development to greatly improve fiber bandwidth distribution and attenuation, while doubling production speed; 2) Investigation to prove-in new polymers that can increase the fiber operating temperature up to 85 deg C; 3) Investigation and development of a unique, readily manufactured multi-core fiber design that can offer customers almost unlimited bandwidth, as well as greatly improved attenuation in tight bends.If successful the production technologies developed in this project will result in the possible recapturing of American leadership in POF manufacturing while stimulating American-based production of the manufacturing capital equipment used in this industry. Similarly, American companies using POF to develop next-generation short-distance communication systems will also benefit, as they will enjoy better access to information and custom products based on GI-POF. The results of this project will help improve the "ecosystem" for many areas of datacom manufacturing in the US. Also, by enabling a product that makes installation of high-bandwidth cabling much simpler and less expensive, the Phase II project will be of considerable benefit to schools, hospitals, and other institutions which have many needs for high-bandwidth communication, but often do not have large budgets to support such systems. The scientific benefits of the Phase II project are likely to be the simplified and lower-cost construction of massively parallel computing facilities, and increased commercial interest in chemical synthesis techniques for amorphous fluoropolymers and their precursor chemicals.