Silica optical fiber is used in all modern optical communications including long-haul, regional, access, and FTTx/Premises networks. The silica optical fiber is made up of three layers, the core, cladding, and the coating. The core is the center of the fiber, which is made of doped glass. This is the region in which information bearing laser light (i.e voice, video, data) is confined. The cladding is also made up of pure silica glass, which keeps the light trapped in the core due to the principle of ‘total internal reflection” and allows it to “bend’ around curves in the fiber.The coating is made of a UV curable polymer called acrylate, which acts to protect the inner glass fiber.
