Long-term reliability of plastic ferrules for single-mode fiber-optic connectors

We examined the creep properties and hazard rates of plastic ferrules to en sure the long-term reliablity of optical fiber connections. The endface def ormation DeltaL had to be smaller than 3 mum to keep the insertion-loss and return-loss fluctuation to acceptable levels in the worst case of random c oncatenation of similarly deformed plastic ferrules. From the fluctuation d ata, we estimated the time-to-failure t(f) at which the DeltaL value became 3 mum. We estimated the acceleration parameters, median lifetimes E, and h azard rates lambda by using t(f) values based on Weibull statistics. The xi values decreased rapidly with increasing temperature and relative humidity . We found we could expect small lambda values of < 0.1 FIT (FIT=10(-9)/hou r) and of 1 FIT for 20 years in a normal atmosphere (25 degreesC/50%RH) and in a more severe case of 25 degreesC/90%RH, respectively.