Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is building the Material Plasma Exposure Experiment (MPEX) to test materials that will be used in fusion devices. Plasma conditions in the instrument will be monitored optically, and the collected light will be transferred to an adjacent diagnostic instrumentation room via optical fibers. The success of the experiment depends on the robust design and low-loss performance of these optical fiber bundles.
Berkshire Photonics worked closely with ORNL to ensure the right products were selected for the job, and designed the fiber bundles accordingly. A portion of the bundles were fabricated at Berkshire’s facilities and successfully delivered to ORNL with zero defects. The remaining bundles were partially assembled at Berkshire, and subsequently installed on-site at the MPEX facility.
Berkshire Photonics sent a team of talented fiber technicians to ORNL, where they worked collaboratively with the staff to pull the pre-made bundles through under-ground conduit. Each fiber was cut to length, terminated with optical connectors, and polished to spec. Several hundred individual fibers were completed on-site under field conditions, and every fiber was final-tested for optical throughput.
The combined effort achieved 100% success, with zero broken fibers, and full compliance with all required transmission criteria.