Sumitomo Electric introduces ultra-low loss, multi-core fiber

Sumitomo Electric is responding to the insatiable demand for bandwidth-hungry services such as 5G mobile large-scale data center traffic with its new ultra-low loss, multi-core fiber 2C Z-PLUS Fiber™ ULL.

To expand transmission capacities further, multi-core fiber (MCF) with plural cores in a single fiber has been actively studied and highly anticipated as a next-generation fiber.

By applying its MCF R&D activities and low-loss fiber technologies, Sumitomo Electric has developed a mass-production version of ultra-low loss MCF 2C Z-PLUS Fiber™ ULL. While a conventional fiber has a single core in which optical signals propagate, 2C Z-PLUS Fiber™ ULL, as the name suggests, has two cores in the exact outer dimensions as a conventional fiber. The transmission capacity through the 2C Z-PLUS Fiber™ ULL can be expanded twofold compared to a traditional single-core fiber because the two cores can carry optical signals independently.

With a transmission loss of typically 0.158 dB/km at 1550 nm, the new fiber can be considered an ultra-low loss fiber (0.16 dB/km or less) applicable to transoceanic submarine systems. A small counter-propagating inter-core crosstalk of -43 dB or less is guaranteed. Also, 2C Z-PLUS Fiber™ ULL has equal outer diameters to a conventional single-core fiber (125 μm and 250 μm in glass and coating areas, respectively) and holds environmental reliability and mechanical stability.

Sumitomo’s 2C Z-PLUS Fiber™ ULL can be used in a broad range of applications:

・Submarine network systems, from regional to transoceanic distance

・Long-haul, high-capacity terrestrial transmission

・Inter datacenter networks

・Ultra-low loss required applications: quantum cryptography communications and seismic and fire detection sensor networks.

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