125-μm-Cladding Eight-Core Multi-Core Fiber Realizing Ultra-High-Density Cable Suitable for O-Band Short-Reach Optical Interconnects

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology 2016-01, Vol.34 (1), p.85-92
• Main Authors: Hayashi, Tetsuya, Nakanishi, Tetsuya, Hirashima, Kaoru, Shimakawa, Osamu, Sato, Fumiaki, Koyama, Koichi, Furuya, Akira, Murakami, Yasunori, Sasaki, Takashi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cables; Cladding; Fibers; MCF; Multi-core optical fibers; Optical fiber cables; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber dispersion; Optical fibers; Optical interconnects; Optical properties; Optimization; Propagation losses; SDM; Space division multiplexing
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2015.2470078

A novel multi-core fiber (MCF), having eight cores within a 125-μm-diameter cladding and suitable for short-reach transmissions, is proposed. By optimizing O-band transmission, the proposed MCF realized the high-density core packing simultaneously achieving the optical characteristics comparable to those of the standard single-mode fiber in O-band, where low material dispersion can be leveraged. The standard 125-μm-diameter cladding is compatible with conventional cabling/connecting technologies and has the tightly bendable mechanical reliability proven by the widely installed standard optical fibers. An ultra-high-density 12-MCF cable was fabricated with the proposed MCF, and achieved 13.6 cores/mm 2 (96 cores in the 3-mm-diameter cable). The transmission characteristics of the cabled MCF were evaluated using a 100GBASE-LR4 transceiver, and error-free 8-SDM × 4-WDM × 25-Gb/s (800-Gb/s/fiber) signals in O-band were successfully transmitted over the 1.11-km-long cabled MCF.