Reduced cycle time MCVD fiber fabrication

The MCVD process, invented at Bell Laboratories,1 has been used successfully to fabricate very high-quality glass fiber for light wave communication applications. As with all techniques for manufacturing fiber, the cost is affected by the time required to produce the precursor preform from which the fiber is drawn. Much attention has therefore been focused on the economic scale-up of the MCVD process, while simultaneously maintaining the dimensional and optical quality of the fiber.