Splice-loss estimation for an automated ribbon-fiber fusion splicer

Single-mode and multimode 2-24 optical fiber ribbon cables have been developed and installed in many countries in recent years. Meanwhile, several different types of mass fusion splicers have been produced and deployed in field for ribbon cable installation. However, a reliable method for local splice-loss evaluation remains a critical subject and an attractive topic to many scientists. A new concept for ribbon-fiber splice evaluation is developed and presented in this paper. With the concept, hot fiber images are taken during the fusion splicing. Core deformation observed from the hot images is combined with the cladding deform information from cold images to evaluate the splice loss. Reasonably good correlation between the calculated and measured splice losses are obtained in a large number of splice tests in our experiment. The Bellcore accuracy criteria for splice loss estimation are met by most of ribbon-fiber types.