Expanded Beam Connector

[INQ. NO. 2008E02] Traditional butt-contact fiber optic connectors have proved to be unreliable in harsh environment applications due to their sensitivity to dirt, dust, mud, water, oil, and other contaminants. Expanded beam fiber optic connectors offer the solution. The benefits of expanded beam technology over butt-contact connectors demonstrate how expanded beam connectors offer improved reliability in military and other harsh environment applications.
The fundamental drawback of butt-contact connectors is that when un-mated, the fiber itself is fully exposed to the outside environment. Any contaminants present will degrade the sub-micron polished finish on the fiber and cause the optical performance to deteriorate significantly. Often, even the process of attempting to clean the ferrule end can cause serious damage to the optical fiber resulting in high attenuation.
Expanded beam fiber optic connectors have been designed specifically to operate in harsh environments. They employ a non-contact technique where the fiber is fully sealed behind a lens. The lens effectively enlarges the active area of the fiber, thus providing a connector with greatly reduced dirt sensitivity, and therefore higher reliability when used in adverse conditions.
The servicing of butt-contact connectors can only be performed by specially trained technicians. If the ferrules have been damaged, cleaning will not restore original optical performance. Damaged connector ferrules will require re-polishing and this can only be done using a fiber optic polishing machine in workshop conditions. Connectors with severely damaged ferrules will require complete re-termination or replacement.
Expanded beam connectors have been shown to withstand extreme environments without the need for special servicing or cleaning equipment. Protecting the optical fibers behind lenses ensures that no damage or degradation can occur. The non-contact design of the optical surfaces in expanded beam connectors results in higher insertion loss than butt-contact connectors (multimode typically -0.7dB, singlemode typically -1.0dB). However, the optical performance of expanded beam connectors is constant throughout the product life and the likelihood of product failure at a critical point is greatly reduced.

MPO Connector

This enables the simultaneous connection and installation of up to 48 strands of optical fiber for reduced construction period, easy maintenance, and high-density real length – in line with a growing demand for installation of a great deal of optical fibers on the spot. This is therefore an innovative solution that reduces construction costs.

FOSTEC INC. has been exporting optical communication-related products such as beam connectors and optical patch cords to global markets including the United States, Japan, etc. over the past 20 years.

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