SBIR Phase I: Rare Earth Doped Polymer Optical Fiber Amplifiers

第一阶段小型企业创新研究项目的目标是演示单模聚合物光纤中的光放大。实现这一目标所需的技术目标包括：1)将稀土螯合物加入我们用于制造光纤的聚合物中；2)展示材料中的放大作用；3)制造具有稀土芯层的聚合物纤维；以及4)展示纤维中的放大作用。由于原理研究人员拥有制造单模聚合物光纤波导的专业知识，其模式分布与标准石英玻璃光纤中的模式匹配，因此放大器光纤与现有的光纤组件兼容。除了相控阵雷达的应用，Sentel的放大单模聚合物光纤(APOF)将对长途光纤放大器业务产生影响，但它将在广域网和城域网应用中产生最大影响，特别是光纤到邻居(FTTN)和光纤到路边(FTTC)。随着长度-带宽产品的减少(对于较小的网络，例如，每根光纤的通道较少但可能更多的广域网或MAN)，LIT光纤承载的收入减少，组件成本对系统设计者变得更加重要。因此，应该清楚的是，这项技术将对广域网和城域网的放大器市场产生重大影响，并将首次为(单模)局域网提供具有成本效益的放大器解决方案。出于同样的原因，这项技术还有望为光纤-同轴电缆混合有线电视系统提供具有成本效益的解决方案。

The goal of Phase I Small Business Innovation Research project is to demonstrate optical amplification in a single-mode polymer optical fiber. The technical objectives required to meet this goal include the following: 1) incorporate rare-earth chelates into polymers that we use to make fiber; 2) demonstrate amplification in the material; 3) make a polymer fiber with a rare-earth core; and 4) demonstrate amplification in the fiber. Because the principle investigator has the expertise to make single mode polymer optical fiber waveguides with a mode profile that matches the mode in standard silica glass fiber, the amplifier fiber is compatible with existing fiber-optic components. Besides applications for Phased Array Radar, Sentel's amplified single mode polymer fiber (APOF) will have impact on the long-haul fiber amplifier business, but it will have the largest impact in WAN and MAN applications, particularly for fiber-to-the-neighborhood (FTTN) and fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC). As the length-bandwidth products decrease (for smaller networks, e.g., WANs or MANs with fewer channels per fiber but perhaps more fibers), the revenue carried by lit fiber decreases and component costs become more important to the system designer. Thus, it should be clear that this technology could have significant impact on the amplifier market for WANs and MANs, and will also provide cost-effective amplifier solutions for (single-mode) LANs for the first time. This technology is also expected to provide cost-effective solutions for hybrid fiber-coax CATV systems for the same reasons.