Reduced Cladding Fibers

The adoption of reduced cladding thickness fibers by the telecom industry has greatly increased over the last year. In fact, almost every specialty fiber manufacturer has launched products aimed at the small form factor (SFF) market. Despite appearances the use of 80 μm OD fiber, rather than 125 μm, has actually been commonplace for years in certain non-telecom applications, fiber optic gyros for example. The general move toward SFF components within the optoelectronics industry — specifically telecom and datacom applications — is also well underway.