Frank Tutu PhDDepartment of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, UCL

BITE Industrial Secondment

@ Fibercore: Specialty optical fiber for sensing applications

Outline

• About me

• Fibercore: Introduction

• Overview of BITE projects at Fibercore

• Current status

About me

• Undergrad @ UCL in Electronic and Electrical Engineering

• Interest in photonics and energy technologies

• PhD @ UCL Photonics group: Design and Fabrication of III-V Quantum Dot Solar Cells

• April 2014 joined the Development team at Fibercore on the BITE scheme

Fibercore: Introduction

Fibercore: Introduction

• Fibercore was formed as a spin-out from the Optical Fiber Group at the University of Southampton.

• Fibercore is a manufacturer of specialty optical fiber mostly for sensing applications

• Customer support activities are key to the business

Fibercore: Introduction

• Shipping > 1,000,000 metres of specialty fiber,

every month

• Worldwide; business in 50 countries

• Highly diversified business serving many industry

sectors: Energy Aerospace, Bio-Medical, Civil Engineering Telecoms

30 years experience dedicated to specialty fibers

Global #1 supplier of fibers for Fiber Optic Gyroscopes

Global #1 supplier of optical fibers for current sensors

Fibercore: Introduction

BITE Projects

Smart Grid – Market for optical current sensors

• Investigated the size of the smart grid sensor market, focusing on the market size of optical current sensors

• Reviewed the key players within the manufacture of optical current sensors

• Gained an insight into optical fiber industry

• Results of study presented to Sales team and the Head of Strategy & New Markets

BITE Projects

Fiber Optic Gyroscopes (FOGs) are being used in increasing severe temperature environments in excess of the normal operating range

Therefore high temperature acrylate (HTA) which can operate to 150 C was assessed ⁰

Results published in Inertial Sensors and Systems Conference and IEEE Xplore

New Product in Fibercore’s 2015 brochure

BITE ProjectsQualification of High Temperature Acrylate Coating

• Employed at Fibercore as Development and Project Engineer

• Working on:

• Customer support activities

• Development and optimisation of coating package design used in polarisation maintaining fiber

• Project management of key technical improvements and qualifications

Current Status

Thank You