Global challenge as a group! Development of the revolutionary “milan米兰体育官网 (HCF)”

We use data communications in daily life, oftentimes without even knowing.
The volume of this data traffic, milan米兰体育官网 within society today, continues to increase, and in order to support that data traffic, R&D is being repeatedly conducted with the aim of “conveying more data at faster speeds”.

While progress is being made toward improving the optical fiber and cable, technological development is also being conducted toward fundamentally changing the structure of the optical fiber. This development is the milan米兰体育官网. The internal structure has been fundamentally changed in order to fully utilize the intrinsic characteristics of light.
Compared to current optical fiber that uses two layers of glass with different refractive indexes, milan米兰体育官网 has a hollow core (air) that confines and transmits light based on a new principle. The structure of this milan米兰体育官网 has been studied for several decades, but it was difficult to achieve practical implementation due to a number of technical issues. Finally, “single mode” and “cabling, connectorization” were realized, and it was possible to move to the demonstration project phase.

milan米兰体育官网 has three major merits.
First, it reduces latency. With existing glass core fiber, latency of about 4.9 microseconds occurs for every 1km light is transmitted. This may seem like a small amount of time, but in a world competing to transmit data around the world in microseconds, such as supercomputers, as well as in the world of autonomous driving and remote medicine where transmission speed has a direct impact on life and death, these microsecond delays should be eliminated. milan米兰体育官网 has a latency of about 3.3 microseconds per kilometer, a reduction of about 30% compared to glass core fiber. The commercialization of milan米兰体育官网 is expected to play an important role in supporting the next-generation telecommunications environment.

The second merit is the “ability to withstand high power”. It is possible to input 1000 times more power compared to glass core fiber. Inputting too much power into a glass core fiber can damage the core or lead to the occurrence of “nonlinearity phenomenon” resulting from waveform disruption caused by deformation to the line form. However, in the case of milan米兰体育官网, because the core is air, it is possible to input light at 1000 times higher energy density without damaging the core.

The third merit is “extremely low loss”. Because the core is air, milan米兰体育官网 further decrease the loss of strength of the transmitted light.
The first two merits have reached the demonstration project phase, and although milan米兰体育官网 many issues remaining in relation to the third merit of low loss, improvements are being made, with good results being achieved.

milan米兰体育官网 was selected to the “R&D Project for advanced optical communications technology that contributes to realizing a green society” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in 2022, and research and development is being conducted in partnership with external institutions.
Also, Furukawa Electric partnered with Keio University in November 2023 to install milan米兰体育官网 in Keio Future Photonic Network Open Lab to create a network several hundred meters in length connecting multiple buildings. The laboratory is the world’s first open innovation laboratory where it is possible to use this new optical fiber in an environment similar to the real world.

Although milan米兰体育官网 has extremely appealing merits, the technological hurdles to realizing this fiber were very high. The group company OFS, which has research facilities in the United States, is playing a major role in the development aimed at commercializing this challenging fiber. Furukawa Electric worked tirelessly with OFS to develop the fiber, and while overcoming issues in relation to cabling and connection, it was possible to achieve the demonstration project level at which the fiber can be used in a near real world environment. As of today, only OFS and one other company in the world have realized technology for cabling milan米兰体育官网.
milan米兰体育官网s are fabricated by an assemble and draw method, where custom drawn capillaries (glass tubes) are assembled orderly according to the design requested and placed inside an overclad tube. New fabrication methods were required in regard to ensuring performance and quality.

In addition, fabricating the fibers can be challenging, and there is a narrow regime for the fiber draw process such as draw speed, tension and accurate pressure control on the structure to obtamilan米兰体育官网 design. In response, Furukawa Electric also worked with the Hungary-based group company FETI, which boasts advanced simulation technology.
Furukawa Electric, OFS and FETI collaborated on many projects, and based on strong mutual trust, we held online meetings once a month (either very early milan米兰体育官网 morning or late at night due to the time zone). In addition, there was a continuous exchange of information via email, and the members also met in person at larger group meetings when necessary. In this way, efforts have been made to maintain close communication between members of the group around the world.

The journey toward development of milan米兰体育官网 began at OFS in 2016 with the development of the fiber technology. This was followed by the development of cabling, efforts to fabricate longer lengths and the successful development of connectors that combine the Fitel splice on connector technology of Furukawa Electric. The first cable was installed in 2018 in Chicago, USA. Improvements have been made to the technology developed at that time, and demonstration projects are being repeatedly conducted.

The following is one story that occurred during a demonstration project. Normally, when installing cable, the fiber is cabled and connectorized at the factory before being delivered to the worksite. When the lab personnel attended the installation of the milan米兰体育官网, it was a real eye opener to see the cable/connector assemblies processed and handled so carefully in the clean laboratory environment being handled very roughly by the installation teams pulling them through conduits. After seeing the installation worksite, the lab personnel felt even more appreciation for the cable designers who designed cable capable of withstanding such installation worksites and subsequent use.

Connection technology is essential for the commercialization of milan米兰体育官网 and cable. However, it was also a major hurdle that had to be overcome.
In the case of traditional glass core fiber, the technology for splicing the glass cores was already established. However, because the core of milan米兰体育官网 is hollow, it was necessary to develop a fundamentally different connection method. Also, following commercialization of milan米兰体育官网, it will be impossible to convert the entire optical network to milan米兰体育官网, so there needs to be technology for enabling compatibility with existing systems.
In response to this, the Fiber-optic Instruments Department milan米兰体育官网 Optical Fiber & Cable Products Division of Furukawa Electric started joint study and development with OFS.
Utilizing the knowledge of fusion splicer engineers, the team began milan米兰体育官网 new fusion splicing technology.
However, milan米兰体育官网 has a structure with many holes. Fibers are normally connected by applying heat to melt ends of each fiber and splicing them together, but in the case of milan米兰体育官网, heat destroys the hollow structure. This challenge was solved by adding a novel approach to the existing fusion splicing technology. Because milan米兰体育官网 has a structure with many holes, given the difficulty in completely preventing damage to the structure, an original, optimized technology that takes into account damage to the structure was created. It took a year to develop this new connection technology, and although there are still issues that need to be resolved, the main issue was solved through an optimized method based a new concept.

After realizing fiber and cable connections, tests and assessments were conducted in cooperation with Keio University and The University of Electro-Communications, and the technology has received extremely high evaluations. In particular, upon presenting joint R&D conducted with students of The University of Electro-Communications, two awards were received from the IEICE Photonics Network Technical Committee. These awards were an opportunity to again recognize the attention this technology is receiving from outside the company and that milan米兰体育官网 already being held in high regard.

Cabling and connection technology have been established for milan米兰体育官网. However, there are still issues that need to be resolved directed at commercialization. The evaluation results during the demonstration projects have still not reached the theoretical expectations, and it is necessary to further draw out the potential of this revolutionary fiber.
Going forward, milan米兰体育官网 also necessary to consider improving mass producibility, which is essential for realizing commercialization. With this aim, the fiber, connection and cabling technology need to be improved and optimized.
Because milan米兰体育官网 a new technology, while individually resolving the issues that arise, we will continue to work toward achieving future commercialization.