Issue link: https://te.mouser.com/i/1472768
10 AEROSPACE / WHITE PAPER CONNECTING THE FUTURE OF FLIGHT FIBER OPTICS for real-time data transmission at light speed VALUE While flying at slower speeds and shorter distances than commercial aircraft, UAM vehicles still generate high-speed, high-volume data for aircraft management, navigation, collision avoidance, and other functions that make autonomous flight possible. With high-speed copper cabling, a shift from 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps Ethernet requires bigger, heavier cables as conductors jump from four to eight. In contrast, fiber optics offers clear advantages, which include: • High bandwidth: Multimode fiber can support data rates of 10 Gbps and much higher using parallel optics transceivers that support multiple channels in little space. • Lightweight: A fiber-optic cable is nearly 78 percent lighter than equivalent lengths of generic Cat 6a Ethernet cable. • Noise immunity: Optical fibers are made of dielectric materials; they neither emit nor receive EMI. Cable shielding is not required. IMPLEMENTATION Physical Contact (PC) Connectors A PC connection uses ferrules mated within a precision sleeve that assures radial alignment to minimize optical misalignment losses (Figure 4). The termini and mating sleeves can be incorporated into standard circular and rectangular connectors to provide multichannel operation. PC connections offer: • Lowest insertion loss • Lower reflection • Compact format While most PC connectors use a ceramic ferrule for a single fiber, a mechanical transfer (MT) ferrule is a multifiber variation typically holding 12 or 24 fibers. EXPLORE THE PAPER: CHALLENGES ARCHITECTURE SENSORS IMPLEMENTATION OPPORTUNITIES NETWORK FIG 4: Physical contact (PC) connector. (Courtesy TE Connectivity) Zirconia Ferrule Ceramic Alignment Sleeve Transmit Fiber Recieve Fiber