A story of a fruitful collaboration between a company and a client: a request for a nontrivial optical fiber solution leads to a new bundle assembly process.
Experience gained through collaboration sometimes is invaluable for an evolution of a company. While independent in-house R&D is always needed for continuous growth and establishment of new solutions, a direct request from a consumer can stimulate and accelerate development of a product desired in the market. And if the request is complex and non-trivial, and requires out-of-the-box thinking, that might even lead to creation of an entirely new production technology. That was the case for Lightguide, when they developed novel glass fiber bundle fusion process to obtain fused bundles with customizable cross-sectional geometries.
Conventional fused glass fiber bundles are used for high-power and high-transmittance applications. They typically are relatively bulky and have round cross-section due to the capillary quartz tube used in the fusion process. Because of a client’s request, Lightguide introduced novel fusion technology without using the capillary tube that allows production of fused fiber bundles with enhanced durability and significantly reduced size at the same high radiation power, as well as the freedom to customize cross-sectional geometry based on the application in mind. The developed bundles are desired by high-tech companies, which need advanced optical solutions with the best performance and highest standards.
The story of the process development began with earlier attempts to provide rectangular cross-section fused fiber bundles for advanced medical technologies company, where the high-transmittance bundles would be used for high power ultraviolet (UV) light delivery during surgeries. The solution at the time was to cut larger round bundles into the desired shapes, however, such approach leads to a vast amount of waste of an expensive material. While it can still be used in high-priced specialized applications, the method is not versatile and cannot be used for more general purpose.
In 2015, Lightguide was approached by a large semiconductor process equipment manufacturer Applied Materials Inc., based in California, with a sophisticated request. They needed a very complex optical fiber setup – 84 bundles per machine with 96 legs per bundle – installed in their state-of-the-art quality control system to deliver high-power UV light from diode lasers to the inspection site. The standard epoxy-based glass fiber bundles did not meet their requirements for high transmittance and damage threshold, so they were looking for fused bundle solutions. Furthermore, they required bundles with highly localized rectangular cross-sectional geometry, which was unconventional at the time. Lightguide did not have the technology to produce such complex bundles, so their R&D engineers started the development process.
It took more than 2 years of hard work to develop a fusion process without using the conventional quartz capillary tube. The use of advanced laser technologies during the fabrication enabled production of fused bundles with geometries beyond the round shape, such as hexagonal, rectangular and linear fiber arrangements. The initial validation of the as-prepared bundles in Applied Materials machines showed good performance – the requested transmittance and power threshold values were met. Work on custom connectors for the bundles was started so the bundles could be fully implemented into the machines. However, not all stories have an entirely happy ending. While the Lightguide rectangular fused bundle solution was technically sufficient and economically viable, a business decision was made in Applied Materials to select a vertically integrated company, which also produces the UV diode lasers, as the fiber bundle supplier.
Nevertheless, such collaboration between the company and a client was a good exercise for future growth and innovations. Mick Speciale, Lightguide sales manager responsible for the USA market, says that “it opened doors to provide unique solutions for other customers with various needs”. They can now supply custom-shaped fused bundle solutions for clients, who need long-lasting and highest transmittance optical bundles in their products, and who are typically coming from medical, military, aeronautics or other high-tech industries. Lightguide hopes for similar new collaborations with other clients that would again lead to novel solutions.
Lightguide is a and competitive European company that specializes in development, manufacturing and supply of fibers, fiber bundles, cables and laser delivery systems for scientific, industrial and medical applications. From small scale prototyping to mass production of custom goods, Lightguide sets an example of a cutting-edge innovator and producer in a highly demanding industry.