Custom Fiber Optic Design and Fabrication
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Michigan Aerospace Corporation has a wide variety of experience with custom fiber optics design and fabrication.
Many of our projects require unique fiber optic patterns to achieve project goals. Due to the variety and types of programs at MAC,
we have acquired experience with fiber optics of many different diameters and numerical apertures, as well as with multi-mode and
single mode fiber optics. All of the fabrication, polishing and performance verification for our instruments’ unique fiber pattern
designs and cabling needs are performed in-house by our qualified staff. For our LIDAR projects, the fiber
optic arrays typically have positional tolerances on the order of 1-2% of the fiber diameter. The illuminated fiber pattern, shown
below left, used in our BalloonWinds and GroundWinds
programs, is a hexagonal close packed configuration with an achieved tolerance of ~ 5μm (or ~ 1.6 % of the fiber diameter) position
placement. The concept model, shown below right, is the ferrule that was used to form the precision fiber pattern.
Due to the variety of profile geometries and sizes of our fiber optic designs, we have developed an extensive capability in custom fiber optic mount design to ensure that once our fibers are fabricated they can be seamlessly integrated with our instruments.
MAC has developed a technique called light recycling using optical fibers, that has dramatically increased the efficiency of our interferometers. Contact us to find out how this patented technique can be applied to your application.
Our lab equipment includes an Ultrapol 1200-series polishing and lapping machine that is used to polish the ends of optical fibers to a surface quality of 0.05 microns. The fiber can be adjusted in position in steps as small as 0.01 mm. A Westover Scientific FV-080 Video fiber microscope or 300X microscope are typically used for inspection.
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