Automation: The means to high reliability aerospace fiber optic cables

Photonics, with its virtually infinite bandwidth, electrical noise immunity, small size, low cost, and increased capacity are being inserted into a number of military platforms to handle higher data rates and larger traffic volumes. Such increased data rates between the various subsystems drive the interconnect solution to be fiber optics. These military fiber optic cables are meant for severe environments, with shock, vibration, and wide temperature ranges not typically required for commercial applications. Currently, the manufacturing of these aircraft fiber optic cables is manually intensive, requiring a high degree of manual dexterity and skill to achieve stringent performance requirements.