Facilities

• IPAS Optical Fibre Fabrication Facilities
• Soft Glass and Soft Glass Fibre Fabrication
• Soft Glass Production
• Soft Glass and Polymer Preform Extrusion
• Soft Glass Fibre Drawing
• Silica Fibre Fabrication Facility
• Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition Lathe (MCVD)
• Preform Characterisation
• Silica Fibre Drawing Tower
• Silica Fibre Characterisation
• Glass and Fibre Characterisation and Functionalisation
• Scanning Near Field and Atomic Force Microscope (SNOM/AFM)
• Glass Fibre Surface Functionalisation
• Commercial Services
• Contact

IPAS Optical Fibre Fabrication Facilities

The optical fibre manufacturing facilities at the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing (IPAS), at The University of Adelaide comprise state-of-the-art fabrication equipment, know-how and capability. This facility in Adelaide forms part of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). The ANFF is a seven-Node facility, with Nodes distributed throughout Australia, drawing on existing infrastructure and expertise. The OptoFab Node brings together three leading microfabrication groups in NSW, Macquarie University, the University of Sydney, and the Bandwidth Foundry. In February 2009, IPAS joined OptoFab, thus enhancing the optical fibre fabrication capabilities available within the Node.

IPAS has a rare combination of glass science, fibre fabrication, research facilities and expertise. This has enabled the realisation of fibres with unique and novel properties. With expertise spanning the full spectrum of glass materials from silica to soft glasses, in combination with a new silica fibre fabrication facility soon to come on-line, will further enable the internationally leading team in glass extrusion at IPAS to build upon their achievements to date which includes the production of glass fibres with the broadest range of structures, unmatched anywhere else in the world. Additionally, the team has demonstrated its capacity to produce record breaking fibres, which have included the world’s smallest core fibres, fibres with extreme nonlinearity, and the world’s smallest hole in a fibre.

Soft Glass and Soft Glass Fibre Fabrication

IPAS’ soft glass fabrication facilities support the manufacture of a range of glasses including fluoride, tellurite and germanate. These facilities include equipment for the controlled batching, melting, casting and annealing, which in turn enables production of novel glass compositions, including undoped and doped glasses.

Soft Glass Production

The soft glass production facilities comprise both open-air and controlled-atmosphere glass melting capability. The open-air melting capability consists of a melting furnace with maximum temperature  of 1200^oC and two annealing furnaces with a maximum temperature of 500^oC. The open-air glass melting capability is used to produce a range of tellurite glasses; Na-Zn-La-tellurite glass (undoped or doped with fluorescent rare earth ions) is now routinely made in up to 300g raw material batch sizes.

The controlled-atmosphere glass melting capability consists of a 5-port glove box with integrated melting furnace with a maximum temperature of 800 - 900^oC, and an annealing furnace with a maximum temperature of 500^oC. A new 6-port controlled atmosphere glove box with one integrated melting furnace and three annealing furnaces will become available from mid 2011. 

Soft Glass and Polymer Preform Extrusion 

IPAS has pioneered methods for extruding glass to form structured preforms. These structured preforms can be produced using soft glass and polymer billets. Preforms can be sonically milled and drilled into a range of cladding shapes as required. These preforms are then drawn down in scale into optical fibres. Fibres can be produced as core-clad and microstructured fibres. A large range of custom, specialised and microstructured fibres can be produced; such microstructured fibres having hole sizes in the range of 20nm - 20µm, with almost arbitrary hole shapes and distributions.

Preforms can be produced with a wide range of structures using soft glass and polymer billets. Extrusion of the preform can currently be undertaken at a temperature of up to 700^oC and a force of up to 100kN. Preforms can be made from in-house fabricated glasses and commercially sourced glasses, including: tellurite, bismuth, fluoride (ZBLAN), fluoride-phosphate (Schott: N-FK5, N-FK51A), lead silicate (Schott: LLF1, F2, SF6, SF57) and chalcogenide glasses as well as polymers. The structures can include rods of 1 - 20mm diameter, tubes of 10 - 20mm outer diameter and 0.5 - 8mm inner diameter, wagon-wheel structures (suspended core), hexagonal arrays of 1 - 7 rings of air holes and spider-web like structures with large air filling fractions. A second extrusion rig with up to 250kN force and a temperature of up to 1400^oC is being installed and commissioned in late 2011. 

Soft Glass Fibre Drawing

A 4m soft glass drawing tower is currently used to draw preforms of 8 - 15mm diameter and up to 180mm lengths into canes of approximately 1mm outer diameter or fibres of 100 - 400µm outer diameter. The temperature range that can be reached in the centre of the hot zone of the RF furnace is approximately 200 - 900^oC. Pressure and vacuum can be applied to the preform during caning and fibre drawing. A range of soft glasses and polymer can be drawn from this tower. In addition, the preform can be spun during fibre drawing. On-line coating of fibres with UV-curable polymer can also be performed. 

Silica Fibre Fabrication Facility

IPAS’ new silica glass fabrication facility will extend the research capability at IPAS and opens new opportunities as well as enhancing the range of applications for speciality silica fibres from photonics research in new lasers, telecommunications devices, nonlinear optics, sensing, electro-optic devices, to applications led research in industrial machining and medical treatments.

This facility located at the North Terrace and Thebarton Campuses of The University of Adelaide has taken 3 years and $4.5m to build and is staffed by world class glass fibre formulation and fabrication experts – it represents a state-of-the-art silica glass fabrication facility that further extends IPAS capabilities and opens new opportunities for Australian researchers within these fields.

The North Terrace Silica Preform Facility comprises silica preform production via MCVD, sonic milling and drilling equipment and preform characterisation instruments. The Thebarton Silica Fibre Drawing Facility houses a 6-meter fibre drawing tower and fibre characterisation instruments.

Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition (MCVD)

The facility includes an MCVD lathe for the fabrication of doped silica preforms (dopants: Ge, P, Al, B, F, rare earths).

Preform Characterisation

The facility includes a Photon Kinetics 2600 preform analyser, allowing for the fully automated refractive index characterisation of optical fibre preforms. This analyser gives us the ability to fully automate preform positioning, facilitating rapid and comprehensive characterization of preform structure. From the refractive index profile data, the PK2600 calculates preform geometry metrics such as core diameter, preform outside diameter, and concentricity. This data also yields equivalent step-index profile parameters, which allow prediction of drawn fibre properties and provide essential preform process feedback.

Silica Fibre Drawing Tower

The 6m drawing tower at this facility will enable the drawing of silica fibres in the temperature range of 1800 -2200^oC. In addition, this re-configurable and versatile tower will allow draw process modifications, as well as new research and commercial production opportunities of specialised optical fibres.

Silica Fibre Characterisation

The facility includes a Photon Kinetics 2200 optical fibre analysis system. This provides a high performance, high capability measurement system for optical fibre. It provide high-speed characterization of the spectral loss of single-mode and multimode fibres. In addition, a Photon Kinetics 2400 fibre geometry system provides high-speed automated measurements of optical fibre end-face geometry. Repeatable and accurate measurement of parameters such as core and cladding diameter, core and cladding non-circularity, as well as core-cladding concentricity providing invaluable process control information. The facility also operates a re-spooler/fibre proof tester.

Glass and Fibre Characterisation and Functionalisation

Additional equipment available within the IPAS glass fibre manufacturing facilities for the characterisation of both soft and silica glass, preforms and fibres include specialised microscopes including a SNOM/AFM.

Scanning Near Field and Atomic Force Microscope (SNOM/AFM)

The SNOM/AFM part can run in collection or transmission mode, and is equipped with an IR detector and an in-built red laser. This equipment is available for both fibre characterisation and other applications.

Glass Fibre Surface Functionalisation

Surface functionalization takes a material whose surface chemistry is dictated by that material's surface composition and surface properties, and attaches to it specific chemical functional groups, or biochemical functionalities, to impart tailored physical, chemical, or biochemical properties to that material's surface. For example, a material’s optical properties can be changed, or the introduction of specific functional groups to react in controlled ways with molecules in fluids. It can also include the introduction of receptors for adding chemical or biochemical specificity to a sensor surface. Bulk glass, planar wave guides and fibre surfaces can be functionalised, both internally and externally, allowing the production for example, of novel optical based fibre sensors.

The powerful combination of capabilities available at IPAS, coupled to its competence for synthetic and surface chemistry in the functionalisation of glass fibres, places IPAS in a unique position to offer its surface functionalisation know-how and facilities, to create new fibre-based platform technologies to underpin paradigm-changing tools for human health, the environment, industrial processes and defence systems.

Commercial Services

As part of the OptoFab node of the ANFF, IPAS offers a variety of commercial services from the supply of custom glasses and fibres to theoretical modelling and development of novel sensor platforms. Academic groups and companies are encouraged to contact IPAS with their specific requirements or to access our specialised equipment and services.

Contact

Luis Lima-Marques (IPAS Laboratory Manager)
Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing (IPAS)
The University of Adelaide, AUSTRALIA 5005
Telephone:  +61 (0)8 8313 0760
Facsimile  :  +61 (0)8 8303 4380
Email: luis.lima-marques@adelaide.edu.au