Optical waveguides – Optical transmission cable – Tightly confined
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-10
2001-06-19
Healy, Brian (Department: 2874)
Optical waveguides
Optical transmission cable
Tightly confined
C385S100000, C385S101000, C385S109000, C385S110000, C385S112000, C385S113000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06249628
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to cables having at least one optical fiber therein.
Conventional fiber optic cables include optical fibers that conduct light that is used to transmit voice, video, and/or data information. Conventional fiber optic zip cord cables comprise two sections that are joined by a frangible web, and are typically used in indoor environments and have the advantages of large bandwidth and low power loss. A composite cable includes an optical transmission component combined with at least one electronic/electrical transmission component. The advantages of electronic/electrical transmission components include low cost and straightforward termination procedures. Typical applications for fiber optic zip cord and composite cables include fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC), fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), fiber-to-the-desk (FTTD), plenum, riser, and local area networks (LANs). In a premises environment, zip cord and composite cables can be used to, for example, interconnect optical devices and/or hardware, computers, modems, and telephones.
Conventional composite cables can include a row of optical fibers and a separate row of electrical conductors. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,195 discloses a composite cable with two distinct cable units. A first cable unit includes optical fiber sub-units connected to strength members by a common jacket having interconnecting web sections. A second cable unit includes metal conductors connected by a common jacket having interconnecting web sections. Both cable units are surrounded by a cable jacket.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,953, a composite cable can include a combination of loose-buffered optical fibers and electrical conductors in a common jacket. The common jacket defines a flat structure including box-shaped sub-units, apparently formed by an injection molding process, with twisted electrical leads and optical fibers disposed in buffer tubes. The cable is designed to be separated into the box-shaped sub-units for connectorization/termination.
Advances in fiber optic connector design have led to the development of multi-fiber connectors. During a typical connectorization process for conventional tight buffered fibers with a multi-fiber connector, the bulk of the buffer material at the fiber insertion side of the multi-fiber connector can result in connectorization difficulties. Additionally, handling and routing of optical fibers is difficult in fiber distribution centers and connector panels that can be overcrowded with a large number of buffered fibers, subunits, and cables.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a zip cord cable having at least two cords with respective jackets attached by a frangible web. At least one of the cords includes at least one buffer unit, the buffer unit comprises at least two optical fibers in a generally tight buffer layer, and a layer of filaments generally surrounds the buffer layer. The cords can each include optical transmission components. Alternatively, at least one of said cords can include an electrical transmission component, for example, a twisted pair of conductors. The filaments can be strength members that can include a water blocking substance.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4707074 (1987-11-01), Heywood
patent: 4815814 (1989-03-01), Ulijasz
patent: 5740295 (1998-04-01), Kinard et al.
patent: 5761362 (1998-06-01), Yang et al.
patent: 5970196 (1999-10-01), Greveling et al.
Hurley William C.
Rutterman Daniel J.
Aberle Timothy J.
Healy Brian
Siecor Operations LLC
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