Foam for optical fiber cable, composition, and method of manufacturing

An optical fiber cable comprising:

• a cable jacket having an inner surface and an outer surface, wherein the inner surface defines a central bore that extends along a longitudinal axis of the optical fiber cable and the outer surface is an outermost surface of the optical fiber cable;
• at least one optical fiber;
• and
• a foam layer extruded to extend through the central bore that is disposed between the at least one optical fiber and the inner surface of the cable jacket, wherein the foam layer comprises:
• a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) foam comprising both a polymer component having at least one TPE and a chemical foaming agent;
• wherein the TPE foam has a compression set of no more than 5% as measured after compression to a strain of 60% for ten hours and after four hours of recovery time using a parallel plate compression fixture on a dynamic mechanical analyzer, wherein further the foam layer has a closed-cell morphology having pores with an average effective circle diameter of less than 100 μm, wherein the foam layer has a compression modulus of less than 1 MPa when measured 50% strain as measured according to ASTM 3574.