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US 4,493,721 AGranted
Method of manufacturing optical fibres
AssigneeU.S. Philips Corporation
InventorsCornelis P. Auwerda, Gerrit J. Koel
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Abstract
Optical fibres are manufactured by etching the inner wall of a tube. The tube wall is etched by passing a hydrogen-free fluorine compound through the tube while reciprocating a nonisothermal plasma through the tube. After etching, core glass is chemically deposited on the etched surface. The core glass is deposited from the gaseous phase while using a nonisothermal plasma for initiating the reaction. The inner-coated tube is then collapsed and drawn to form an optical fiber.
Claims6
A method of manufacturing an optical fiber comprising the steps of:
- providing a glass tube having an inner wall;
- etching the inner wall of the tube with a fluorine compound;
- and then
- depositing core glass on the etched inner wall of the tube to form a coating, said core glass being formed by reacting gaseous glass-forming compounds in a nonisothermal plasma;
- collapsing the coated tube to form a solid rod;
- and
- drawing the solid rod into a fiber;
- characterized in that the step of etching consist essentially of the steps of:
- passing a gaseous hydrogen-free fluorine compound through the tube;
- forming a nonisothermal plasma in the tube while passing the fluorine compound through the tube;
- and
- reciprocating the plasma along the length of the tube.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.