What Is Mutimode Fiber Patch Cable?

Mutimode fiber patch cable is one of the types of the fiber patch cable. Fiber optic patch cable, consisting of a short length of optical fiber with a connector on either end, is the simplest fiber optic components. Multimode fiber optic transmits mutimode on a given operating wavelength. The numerical aperture of the ordinary multimode optical fiber is 0.2 ± 0.02. Multimode fiber transmits hundreds of modes, and the propagation constant and the group rate of each mode are different. Since its signals will be weakened with the increase of the distance, it is suitable for short-distance optical fiber communication systems and small capacity.
 
Differences From Singlemode Fiber Patch Cable
Fiber patch cable has two types: mutimode fiber patch cable and singlemode fiber patch cable. So how can we tell them apart? The size of their respective cores is the main difference between singlemode and multimode fiber patch cables. Multimode fibers have a much larger core than single-mode (50, 62.5 mm or even higher), while singlemode cables only have a core of 8 to 10 microns. This advantages allows light transmission can go through more different paths. The larger core gathers more light in multimode fiber patch cables than singlemode cables, and this light reflects off the core and allows more signals to be transmitted. On the other hand, single modes fiber enables lights to be transported in a single wavelength, allowing the singles to travel faster in longer distances without little signal loss.
Types of Mutimode Fiber Patch Cables
According to its refractive index distribution, mutimode fiber patch cables are divided into two types. One is step index multimode fiber. Another is graded mutimode fiber. Step index multimode fiber is mostly used as “light guide” for instrumentation purposes. Its core diameter is large, about 100 to1500 µm. It has large NA (0.22, 0.29, 0.37, 0.43, …) , low-OH (for IR) and high-OH (for UV) versions. Graded index multimode fiber is mostly used as “digital” fiber for LAN application. Compared to step index fibers, graded refraction index fibers can transmit data at max rate for it reduces pluse dispersion. Its high bit rate over short distances is about 10Gbps within 550m. Its medium size core diameter is about 50µm (OM2 and OM3) , and the typical wavelengths are 850 and 1310 nm. Compared to the graded mutiomode fiber, step index multimode fiber have lower bandwidth. When it is applicated in the web, the fiber, whose fiber core diameter is 62.5μm, and the cladding diameter is 125μm, is the most popular multimode fiber.