'Specialty' Fiber Demand Growing

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- According to a new market study from ElectroniCast Corporation, the worldwide use of selected specialty optical fiber in communication products will grow from $239 million in 2000 to $4.38 billion by 2010. "The study provides data detailing price per meter/kilometer and the major application for each fiber type," ElectroniCast Research Analyst Catherine Rondeau said. "Specialty fibers are available at prices ranging from a few dollars to nearly a thousand dollars per meter, depending on the material, manufacturing process, quantity and application."According to ElectroniCast President Stephen Montgomery, "optical fiber amplifier supply is addressed by captive production and merchant markets; several manufacturers are involved in both. Resulting in part from demand being ramped up rapidly, customer driven, and several equipment producers felt that they needed to control the amplifier design and production, in order to assure the timely delivery of a high performance product." ElectroniCast's Specialty Optical Fiber Global Market Forecast includes a separate forecast for the following fiber types:* Erbium-Doped Fiber — Used within erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs).
* High-Index Fiber — Used in fused couplers; short wavelength laser and LED sources, sensors, DWDM components and other communication systems.
* Polarization Maintaining Fiber (PMF) — PMF is an optical fiber in which the polarization planes of lightwaves launched into the fiber are maintained during propagation with little or no cross-coupling of optical power between the polarization modes. PMF is used for pigtails, integrated optics and Gyros/sensors.
* Photosensitive Fiber — Fiber Bragg Grating is a means to increase optical fiber transmission capacity. Photosensitive fiber is used for increasing the offset of cladding modules from the Bragg Wavelength. The fiber is also used to low-loss splicing to standard singlemode fiber.
* Flouride and Other Types — Compared with silica fiber, fluoride glass optical fiber has a transparent wavelength area that spreads on the long wavelength side. This feature is anticipated to make fluoride glass optical fiber ideal for fields where silica fiber is difficult to use.ElectroniCast Corp.