How to Order Custom Qualified Optical Fiber

[by Tiana Ruchti]

When you have exact specifications for your fiber optic assemblies, WPI delivers with proprietary qualified optical fibers designed by in-house optical engineers. You can count on superior performance from WPI's spectroscopy products and the published research scientists who design them. When you depend on reliable data for your discoveries, consider WPI's German Optics Department for qualified optical fiber and assemblies.

Here we discuss the process for submitting a request for an optical fiber to match your needs using the WPI optical fiber selection guide, which is printed in the 2019 catalog on page 163. There are five steps.

	1. Select your fiber material. You will see in the two charts that there are seven fiber materials available. Two of them are exclusive and new to WPI. Once you’ve discovered what spectral range you are working on and the numerical aperture (NA) that you will need, select the fiber material.
	2. Select the style of the optical fiber. To simplify the process, we only show a couple. The standard is a simple patch cord. It’s a single fiber patch cord. We also have a bifurcated standard option which is two fibers bundled together on the common end. At the furcation point, those fibers split off into two separate fibers, two separate legs.
	3. Select your core diameter. These seven fiber materials have options that indicate the core diameters available. Make sure they correlate with the fiber you chose in step 1. If you are not sure of the core diameter, a tip is to select the largest core possible. For our LWCC (Liquid Waveguide Capillary Cell) flow cells, we recommend 600 µm core fibers.
	4. Specify the length in centimeters of your fiber optic cable. We can build assemblies as long as 15 m. Be sure to specify your length in centimeters.
	5. Specify the connector type you need at the distal ends of your optical fiber or the common end of your bifurcated optical fiber.

If you will have mixed connector types on your fiber optic assembly, please make note of that on the form or email that you send to WPI.

Use the fiber selection guide to construct the appropriate part number and email it to wpi@wpiinc.com or use the Fiber Optic Assembly Qualification Sheet to submit your specifications. We will have an application specialist contact you. WPI also creates custom assemblies. If the simple steps above do not define your needs and you want something custom like a mixed fiber bundle or mixed connector types, please email wpi@wpiinc.com.

Contact us today to discuss your application.