The glass of optical fibers can withstand very high temperatures. However, the protecting coating materials cannot. Usual temperature range is limited at around +85°C concerning standard acrylate materials used in the telecom industry. While this is enough for most data centers or data connections, some applications require higher temperature resistance. Those include data transmission or sensing in harsh environments, which can be oil and gas, structure monitoring, automotive or aviation. J-fiber is working on fibers with coating materials that can withstand elevated temperatures. This includes mainly high-temperature acrylate and polyimide materials, which can endure up to 150°C and 300°C respectively, depending on fiber requirements. We will explain drawing conditions of such fibers, fiber properties and fiber characterization tools as well as lifetime expectations based on defined acceptance criteria. The most important include fiber attenuation and microbending performance, strip force of the coating, i.e. the strength the coating sticks to the glass, and tensile strength of the fiber. We will review the way these parameters are tested in accordance with existing IEC standards and their meaning for the application.
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