Project Engineer Name: Eduardo Espinosa Project Name: Fiber-Optic Paper Project Manager: K.

Daraie Date: February 25, 2012 Grade:

Fiber-optic are long, thin strands of pure glass that are about the diameter of a human hair. They are arranged in bundles called optical cables and are used to transmit light signals over long distances. The fiber-optic cables are made of three parts which are the core, cladding, and the buffer coating. The core is a thin glass center of the fiber where light travels. The cladding is the outer optical material that surrounds the core that reflects the light back into the core. The buffer coating is a plastic coating that protects the fiber from damage and moisture. The hundreds or thousands of optical fibers are arranged in optical cables. The bundles are protected by the cables outer covering called the jacket. There are two types of fiber: Singlemode fibers and Multi-mode fibers. Single-mode fibers have small cores that are about 9 microns in diameter. One micron is one-millionth of a meter. The single-mode fibers transmit infrared laser light at 1,300 to 1550 nanometers per wavelength. The multi-mode fibers have larger cores which are 62.5 microns in diameter. The multi-mode fibers transmit infrared light at 850 to 1300 nanometers from light-emitting diodes also known as LED. Fiber-optics has many benefits compared to copper wire cable. Fiber-optic cable are less expensive, thinner, higher carrying capacity, less signal degradation, light signals, low power, digital signals, non-flammable, lightweight, and are flexible. They are less expensive because it can go several miles and can be made cheaper than the lengths of copper wire. This can save you money. This cable also costs much less to maintain than copper as well as it provides a greater resistance to electromagnetic noise such as radios, motors or another nearby cables. Signals can be transmitted further without needing to be refreshed or strengthen like other cables. Fiber-optics can be drawn to small diameters than copper wire. It can also have more fibers bundled into a given-diameter cable than in copper wire because of how thin the optical fibers are compared to the copper wires. The cables being so small, it allows more phone lines to go over the same cable or more channels to come through the cable into the cable TV box. The signal loss in fiber-optics is less than in copper wire. The light signals of the fibers from the fiber-optics do not interfere with those of other fibers in the same cable unlike the electrical signals in copper wires. The signal in fiberoptics degrades less which will mean that lower-powered transmitters can be used instead of the high-voltage electrical transmitters needed for copper wires. Fiber-optics is best suited for carrying digital information which can be extremely useful in computer networks. They are suited for carrying digital information also because fiber-optics operates at high speeds, up into the gigabits range. It is also non-flammable because there is no electricity that is passed through the optical fibers, which means no fire hazard. The optical fiber weighs less than copper wire cable. Fiber-optic cables take up less space in the ground than copper wire. Fiber-optics is so flexible that they can transmit and receive light that are used in many flexible digital cameras. A few good examples of this include medical imaging, mechanical imaging, and plumbing.