Aerospace series - Fibre optic systems - Handbook - Part 001: Termination methods and tools

This document examines the termination of optical fibre cables used in aerospace applications. Termination is the act of installing an optical terminus onto the end of a buffered fibre or fibre optic cable. It encompasses several sequential procedures or practices. Although termini have specific termination procedures, many share common elements and these are discussed in this document. Termination is required to form an optical link between any two network or system components or to join fibre optic links together. The fibre optic terminus features a precision ferrule with a tight tolerance central bore hole to accommodate the optical fibre (suitably bonded in place and highly polished). Accurate alignment with another (mating) terminus is provided within the interconnect (or connector) alignment mechanism. As well as single fibre ferrules, it is noted that multi-fibre ferrules exist (e.g. the MT ferrule), and these are also discussed in this document.