SIFAM ships one millionth fibre component

Since manufacturing its first fiber splitter over two decades ago, SIFAM has developed a unique process for fusing multiple optical fibers together to produce devices with almost no optical loss, typically <0.02 dB (<0.005%). SIFAM says its product reliability in the field is substantially less than 1 FIT (Failure-in-Time).

SIFAM's components are typically used as "building blocks" in a wide range of industrial applications. Examples include a low-loss 980/1550 nm multiplexer that yields the lowest noise figures in optical fiber amplifiers, which are used throughout terrestrial and submarine telecommunications networks.

"We have seen the market develop from early sensor research, to explosive growth in telecoms networks, to the latest trend for high-power fiber lasers," said Paul Ellis, SIFAM's CEO and founder. “Whilst our growth to this volume of shipments was fuelled by the telecoms boom, the one millionth device will actually be a high-power combiner delivered to a fiber laser manufacturer.”

Recent developments have included red, green and blue visible wavelength combiners that have been deployed in laser projection displays and biomedical instruments, while the company's recent growth has been fuelled by rising demand for higher power fiber lasers. “We are seeing 100% growth in the high-power segment, faster in fact, than the 25% forecast by some analysts, and expect significant further developments to be announced at LASER 2007," said Ellis.

The company's latest product releases, which will on display at LASER 2007, include high-power combiners with between 2 and 19 input fibers, large-diameter multimode fiber, and single-mode, polarization-maintaining or large mode-area fiber feed-throughs. These developments all enable higher laser output powers and faster, more precise cutting. Other applications are in fiber gyroscopes for aircraft landing systems and high-power fiber lasers for precision industrial machining and marking.

Supplying this many components based on essentially the same technology platform has required the company to support various applications through their lifecycle. "As applications have matured we have developed the capability to provide increased volumes and cost reductions, with 70% of our output now provided from offshore manufacturing," Ellis added. "Our offshore manufacturing partners are based in Eastern Europe, a location chosen to match the supplier base familiar to the automotive and industrial users, who are driving the current high growth applications."